Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!cbmvax!grr From: grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: A-500 rumors & comments Message-ID: <1750@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> Date: Sat, 25-Apr-87 22:23:49 EDT Article-I.D.: cbmvax.1750 Posted: Sat Apr 25 22:23:49 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 26-Apr-87 22:32:35 EDT References: <8704240432.AA23509@cogsci.berkeley.edu> Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA Lines: 63 Keywords: A-500 autoconfig clocks In article <8704240432.AA23509@cogsci.berkeley.edu> bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt) writes: > >Rumors have it that the internal slot on the Amiga 500 will be able to accept >512 or so of SLOW FAST memory with no hope of splitting the bus to create >FAST FAST memory. What does net-land think about this, and what does >Commodore have to say in it's defense? Yawn... Oops, that wasn't very political*, was it? The A500 *does* have an (electrically) A1000 compatible expansion connector on the side. Memory plugged in there *can* be "Fast". >The slot on the 500 will have the disadvantage of contention with with the >bus used by the custom chips, yet not the advantage of being addressable >by them. The real crime is that this memory will ->pretend<- to be FAST, >but actually be CHIP, well not really 'cause... Uh, silly question, but how slow is this "SLOW FAST" memory? Answer, precisely the same speed as the memory in an A1000! There are some software tuning issues involved, but but they are not complicated and can be addressed in the next kickstart release. If you're still not convinced, note that having the internal expansion be "pseudo" chip memory makes it a bit easier to turn it into "real" chip memory whenever we come up with some chipset enhancements.. > Another point to consider is that this board will probably be cloned > right off, as the internal 256k was. Commodore can make a half-hearted > and possibly profitless attempt at the board, and leave it to the cloners > to pull up the slack. That depends on the price of the expansion and it's availability / desirability at the point/time of sale. Ask any third party that tried to clone the A1000 256K memory expansion what happened to their sales once the dealers started selling the expansions as part of the initial system purchase. > One more A-500 comment: A clock chip on the above mentioned board is to be > located at $dc00000 absolute with a reader on WB. This is is AGE OF > AUTOCONFIG, the DECADE OF 'PLUG AND PLAY'. Cleaner for everybody except > the poor sop who gets to design it would be a ROM that copies itself to > RAM at config time and gets executed once DOS is up. It can then stay > resident (say, for a SCSI driver) or de-allocate itself (our clock). I don't follow this very well. The only way we could justify a battery backed up real-time clock (no volume product smaller than a PC/AT had one at the time) was to make it optional. You simply put a setclock command in your statup script, if the clock is present, it initializes the system date and time of day, if not it does nothing. Sounds kinda like plug-n-play to me... * Sorry, this slow memory/fast memory stuff expounded by people who don't really understand the trade-off's or who should know better tends to give me a red rash... -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)