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From: banks@viking.dec.com (Dawn Banks)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Sidecar
Message-ID: <5242@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: Tue, 9-Sep-86 12:39:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.5242
Posted: Tue Sep  9 12:39:26 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Sep-86 06:03:10 EDT
Sender: daemon@decwrl.DEC.COM
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 62

~r}}ixxxxi~r~ri  <- Eat dirt, lineeater!

     In regard to the flaming surrounding the upcoming sidecar, I thought I'd
squirt a little lighter fluid over the coals.

     In particular, I'm left wondering whether the folks at CA are getting out
of the useful computer business, or just starting subsidiaries in the 1BM PC
clone and office furniture businesses.  A month or so ago, I got to see a
sidecar, and ask some questions about it.  The person I was talking to was
either a CA representative, or some distributor of CA equipment.

Me:  Looks neat.  I want a hard disk on my machine for less than the Amiga
     costs.  Will this help me?

Him: Sure.  You can put any off the shelf hard-card into it, and it'll work
     fine.

Me:  Can I access it from the Amiga, or just the 8088.

Him: No.  Well, yes you can.  I mean, you partition the disk between the 8088
     and the Amiga.

Me:  What if I want the whole disk to be dedicated to the Amiga?

Him: Can't do that.  Anyway, you gotta get the whole 8088 system with the
     sidecar.

Me: (stupidly realizing for the first time that the sidecar isn't the SCSI
     interface I was looking for).  Ok, look:  All I want is a cheap SCSI
     interface so I can put cheap SCSI disks on the machine.

Him: Well, you can do that with the Sidecar.

Me:  What if I don't want to pay for the 8088 system?  What if I just want
     a SCSI interface and nothing else?

Him: You're out of luck.  We're just interested in getting this Sidecar to
     market.

Me:  If I were interested in a PC clone, don't you think I'd have bought one
     in the first place?  It sounds like you guys are getting out of the Amiga
     business, and into the PC clone business.  Only problem is, that all I'm
     interested in is an Amiga, and not a PC clone.  What are you guys going
     to do with the Amiga?

Him: Excuse me, I gotta talk to someone else.

So, youse guys at Commodore Amiga, what's the deal?  Are we in the Amiga
business, or the PC clone business.  The Sidecar is a neat hack, but if you
were serious about selling PC alternatives (like Amigas), you'd be introducing
products that make the Amiga a nicer machine to work on, rather than making
it a front end for yor competitor's architecture.  In the mean time, the only
reasonable hard disk alternatives we've seen cost as much or more than the
Amiga does in the first place.  It wouldn't be so bad if that were the going
rate for hard disks, but from what I've seen on the market, it's highway
robbery.

{disclaimer}

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