Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcsri!utegc!utai!garfield!john13
From: john13@garfield.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: re DMA hard disks
Message-ID: <3103@garfield.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Dec-86 11:27:01 EST
Article-I.D.: garfield.3103
Posted: Tue Dec  9 11:27:01 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Dec-86 05:21:25 EST
References: <2135@well.UUCP> <1048@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
Sender: perry@garfield.UUCP
Reply-To: john13@garfield.UUCP (John Russell)
Organization: Memorial U. of Nfld. C.S. Dept., St. John's
Lines: 64
Summary: 

In article <1048@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> andy@cbmvax.UUCP (Andy Finkel) writes:
>In article <2135@well.UUCP> spencer@well.UUCP (Randal Spencer) writes:
>How does the sidecar do it? or is the side car just going to be slow?
>voodoo.
>>Is the sidecar going to have 2 meg of sockets for Amiga memory and sockets to
>>bring the IBM memory up to 640K and an 8087 co-processor socket and is it going
>>to reach the market?
>The answe to that last question is yes, it is going to reach the
>market.  It is already available in Germany, I'm told.
>>

Well, you have now been informed that it's available here in the Great White 
North :-).

The PC hard-card we stuck in is partitionable, as many Amiga partitions as you 
want but only one IBM partition (I can see that's going to become another one of
*those* words - like "implementation" or "algorithm" :-). 

Hard drive speed boost we haven't measured yet. It is, of course, mega-fast
compared to floppies.

There is a spot for a 1 meg Amiga expansion, but any internal IBM type memory
can't be accessed by the Amiga. It doesn't pass the bus, but does pass the
mouse/joystick ports. Haven't had it apart yet, but the boot-up message makes
mention of Phoenix... well, Phoenix something. This would lead me to believe
that the internals are PC-10 identical. 256K comes in the Sidecar.

The manual does say not to use the Amiga power switch...but someone who shall
remain nameless (not me) forgot this twice and didn't blow anything up.

It multitasks wonderfully, even has slider gadgets for the IBM window (but
you can also make it full-screen and borderless if you want). What I saw was
all on the Workbench screen. Everything tried so far (we threw all our graphics
demos at it to try to crash it) has worked without a hitch. The manual says
"ALL IBM software". If the internals are PC-10ish, well, I've never seen
anything not work on the PC-10.

The German influence is present. You return to the "menue" and make the drive
"aktive". But the manual is professionally printed, unlike many of the
"preliminary version" manuals supplied even with some commercial products.

That's about all I have time for for now. If I get the time between now and
the end of exams, I will post info on any new products I see (let's have
some more reviews!). Until then, feel free to e-mail any questions you may
have on:

DPaint II (this will take a *long* time to review! Is there a "software of the 
           century" award? he says without smiley)
Pro Video Character Generator
Professional Text Engine
Sidecar (of course)

These are the latest/best products out this way. Someone please kick me if
I forget to follow through with reviews :-).

I see an ad for "Pagesetter" in the latest AmigaWorld. Is this a port of a 
Mac program? There is a *lot* of impressive stuff advertized & reviewed in 
that AmigaWorld, but their Q & A section could use help. "It's true that you 
can't have icons for directories created with the CLI..."

John Russell
UUCP:	{akgua,allegra,cbosgd,ihnp4,seismo,utcsri}!garfield!john13
EAN:	john13@garfield.mun.cdn
CSNET:  john13%garfield.mun.cdn@ubc.csnet