Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!seismo!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!spice.cs.cmu.edu!mjp From: mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: The New IBM Wonder-Toys Message-ID: <1177@spice.cs.cmu.edu> Date: Sat, 4-Apr-87 15:58:48 EST Article-I.D.: spice.1177 Posted: Sat Apr 4 15:58:48 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Apr-87 02:20:10 EST Reply-To: mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI Lines: 43 Keywords: PC AT XT PS/2 barf aggh ugh So, I got to see a demo of the New Personal System/2 here on campus yesterday. It was being shown by an IBM rep that looked like she had all of 20 minutes experience with the machine. Apparently they've repackaged the PC and AT into the Personal System/2 models 30 and 60 respectively. They've added a fair amount of stuff standard, including video circuitry on the mother board that handles 640x480 with 256 colors simultaneous out of 262,000. The pictures it generated in the demo were "Amiga-quality." The version 30 has an 8086 at 8 Mhz, the 60 has an 80286 at 10 Mhz. They weren't showing the 386 machine (the Personal System model 80), but it has been announced (two models, low end 16 Mhz, high end 20 Mhz). The expansion bus is proprietary and is also auto-config, if I understood the saleslady correctly (she was glowing about how the auto-config "intelligence is distributed across the machine.") With the educational discounts they're giving here at CMU (and I suspect many other universities as well), a 386 PC with 1 floppy, 44 meg hard drive and color display costs $5500. A comparably equipped Mac II (1 floppy, 40 meg SCSI) costs $4000. So IBM isn't even being competitive with Apple. The system 30 (XT equivalent) can be had for less than $2000. I suspect IBM may find itself caught between a rock (Apple) and a hard place (the clone makers). But after seeing these new machines, I can't help but think the whizzy graphics display the new PCs contain wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the Amiga's influence on the market. --M -- Mike Portuesi / Carnegie-Mellon University Computer Science Department ARPA: mjp@spice.cs.cmu.edu UUCP: {harvard | seismo | ucbvax | decwrl}!spice.cs.cmu.edu!mjp BITNET: s314mp1u@cmccvb, rainwalker@drycas (pick one) "Amiga hackers do it graphically, with lots of sound effects" "Mac owners dream in black and white Atari owners dream in color... but Amigoids dream using Hold and Modify!"