Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!hscfvax!serf From: serf@hscfvax.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Amiga 1000 to Amiga 2000 Upgrade Message-ID: <359@hscfvax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 26-Mar-87 22:05:12 EST Article-I.D.: hscfvax.359 Posted: Thu Mar 26 22:05:12 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 28-Mar-87 07:31:46 EST References: <8814@decwrl.DEC.COM> Reply-To: serf@hscfvax.UUCP (J. W. Lockhart) Distribution: na Organization: Health Sciences Computing Facility, Harvard University Lines: 73 Keywords: A1000 A2000 A500 IBM-AT, XT, Hi-persistence, SCSI, 8 meg etc. Summary: What was *really* at the BCS Meeting; Somewhat Long. About the hardware at the recent BCS General meeting -- There were nine new machines -- two A2000's on stage, four A2000's in front of the stage, and three A500's in front of the stage. At least one of the A500's was expanded to 1 Meg; it seemed that each A2000 had a different configuration. Pardon me if I forget names, but I see the machines more often than the people... One of the A2000's had a CSA 68020 board in it, and was being shown by someone from M.I.T. Said board plugged into the CPU/coprocessor expansion slot; I don't remember whether it had a 68881. Another sported a new Amiga high-persistence monitor. It wasn't bad, but it *still* would flicker when pushed for contrast (example: black-on-white horizontal lines in interlaced mode). When I saw it, the A2000 was running DPaint II; text looked good, and ghosting was not a problem save when the background was black. Then again, I also heard a rumor that a multisync monitor (~$600?) with some sort of (~$300?) box would be available for 640 x 400 non-interlaced display. This rumor came from a dealer... Also visible (but not plugged in to anything, so far as I know) were an 8-meg expansion card (fully populated) and the SCSI card. I believe that the AT-card was working on one of the machines; I never checked that, though. I did get a chance to play with an A2000 with the Bridge (XT) card, though. An IBM is much nicer to deal with when running on an Amiga!! There are a bunch of nifty bells & whistles that allow you to set up the PC window any which way you want. More impressive, though, were some other features: -- the ability to cut and paste (using the clipboard.device) both text and graphics between a PC-window and any Amiga program (such as Notepad) which deals with the clipboard.device. This means that you should be able to easily take crummy PC graphics & clean 'em up on the Amiga, and do presentations, etc., etc. -- the ability to "freeze" a PC-window and go on to some other PC application in the meantime. Handy for keeping compiler error messages around when you're working in an editor, as RJ Mical pointed out. -- the ability to display a Lotus 1-2-3 graph in one (color) window while working on data in another (monochrome) window; this was demoed. -- the ability to make some businessmen-types positively drool. This probably has something to do with the above features. There were a few "My company is looking to buy an AT, how soon will this stuff you're showing be available?"-type questions. (Do I get an award for Most Ridiculous Adjective of the Month?) 'Tany rate, enthusiasm was high in those quarters. Oh, yes, the Amiga Trade-ins: The news on trade-ins was provided by Betsy from Tech Plus (I forgot her last name, sorry). Essentially, yes, you give them $1K + your old A1000 CPU & keyboard (sans monitor, peripherals, Insiders, etc.), and they give you a new A2000 (sans monitor, peripherals, Insiders, etc.). If I have the urge to buy an A2000, I'll probably do as she suggested -- sell my A1000 on my own & thus get a better deal. BTW, I hear that Tech Plus is the local Commodore rep, correct me if I'm wrong. I hope this provides a little better info, but fear that I've just opened a big can of worms (albeit an interesting one). Enjoy. -- John Lockhart serf@hscfvax.harvard.edu (until 5 April 1987 or so) =======================================================================