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From: sdl@linus.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: new amiga computers
Message-ID: <479@linus.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Feb-87 23:36:18 EST
Article-I.D.: linus.479
Posted: Sat Feb  7 23:36:18 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 9-Feb-87 02:27:14 EST
References: <4047@utcsri.UUCP>
Organization: The MITRE Corp., Bedford, MA
Lines: 44
In-reply-to: drz@utcsri.UUCP's message of 2 Feb 87 15:28:51 GMT
Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.35.1 of Sat Jan 10 1987 on linus (berkeley-unix)


The March 1987 issue of "Compute!" magazine has a "firsthand look" at
the new Amiga 2000.  Some juicy quotes:

"The [Amiga 2000] basic machine includes one 3 1/2 inch floppy....The
front panel also has space to mount one extra 3 1/2 inch drive and a
half-height PC-compatible 5 1/4 inch drive....the extra drive spaces
can hold either floppy or hard drives...."

"[The Amiga 2000] can run PC software with ...the Bridge
[card]...which contains an 8088 processor....  The Bridge card allows
a hard drive to be shared by both the PC [8088] and the Amiga...."
(Sort of an internal Sidecar with a floppy disk controller, but
without a 5 1/4 inch drive of its own)

"Commodore will also offer a PC/AT compatible Bridge card ...which is
based on the...80286...."

"Internally, the Amiga 2000 has...a Motorola 68000...However,
Commodore intends to market an optional 68020 processor....This
processor could work either in parallel with the resident 68000 or as
a replacement for it...."

If I read this right, an Amiga 2000 can be equipped to have a 68000,
a 68020, and an 80286, all running in parallel and accessing the same
global memory!  That's a lot of multiprocessor power.

On the other hand, the article states that the graphic and sound chips
for the Amiga 2000 are identical to those on the current Amiga 1000.
That's too bad.  I was hoping that the Amiga 2000's graphics would at
least fix the interlace flicker that occurs with 640x400 pixel mode.

Finally, the Kickstart disk has been eliminated for the Amiga 2000;
the code is contained in 256K of ROM instead.


Steven Litvintchouk
MITRE Corporation
Burlington Road
Bedford, MA  01730

Fone:  (617)271-7753
ARPA:  sdl@mitre-bedford
UUCP:  ...{cbosgd,decvax,genrad,ll-xn,philabs,security,utzoo}!linus!sdl