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From: kegel@JULIET.CALTECH.EDU (Dan R. Kegel)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: The compute box
Message-ID: <860619131916.00g@Juliet.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Thu, 19-Jun-86 16:19:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: Juliet.860619131916.00g
Posted: Thu Jun 19 16:19:16 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jun-86 13:31:30 EDT
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Neil has spoken:
> The new thingamajig will be real fast, have its own memory, but
> will use a current-model ST for I/O, via the DMA port.
> Please don't ask me any more questions.
All right; I'll just flame a little bit.
1. Won't using the DMA port for graphics I/O conflict with, or at least
   slow to a crawl, hard disk I/O?  Or will the box have its own SCSI port
   for a hard disk?
2. Atari seems to be targeting this thing for compute-intensive, but
   graphics and I/O -nonintensive applications.  Do such applications
   really exist?  I was under the impression that the attraction of 68000-
   based micros like the ST was their ability to manipulate graphics
   with ease; for other purposes, you may as well get an IBM clone.
   At any rate, I have an insatiable hunger for fast graphics, as my
   interests are mainly in affordable data analysis and CAD workstations.
   (And for that reason, I can't use the ST; its resolution in color mode
    is simply too poor.  Atari is being left in the dust in that regard
    by the wave of 16-color, 350 line graphics that is taking over the
    IBM world.)
- Dan (kegel@juliet.caltech.edu, kegel@citjulie.bitnet)