Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!uoregon!omepd!hah From: hah@mipon3.intel.com (Hans Hansen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Yet more A1000->A2000 upgrade questions Message-ID: <1102@omepd> Date: Fri, 2-Oct-87 04:34:36 EDT Article-I.D.: omepd.1102 Posted: Fri Oct 2 04:34:36 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 6-Oct-87 04:45:41 EDT References: <2398@cbmvax.UUCP> Sender: news@omepd Reply-To: hah@mipon3.UUCP (Hans Hansen) Distribution: world Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro Lines: 161 In article <2398@cbmvax.UUCP> higgin@cbmvax.UUCP (Paul Higginbottom SALES) writes: >I'm trying to be patient about the questions I'm receiving >through electronic mail, but it seems that people don't read >what I've been posting. The questions posted below are "as >received" through the mail. > >Q (cont): Now that CBM is on its feet again.. they want to dump the >A1000 and support the two newer one's A500 and A2000. > >[The MARKETPLACE is determining this. Commodore Marketing NOT the market place is KILLING the A1000 ! Just so YOU get it straight ! ... > If all three Amigas were on >the market, there would be too much overlap, and the customer would >probably be confused. Don't you mean that Commodore Marketing would be confused ?! Commodore Marketing has NEVER identified the/a market for the Amiga. Instead of aggressively attacking the business $$$ world, with the best business computer for the buck in the world, you have floundered with MORONIC, STUPID, and INEPT commercials and ads ! If you had used 10% of the wasted ad monies to bring to market IBM compatable business software, READ 680x0 NATIVE CODE THAT CAN READ AND WRITE ibm FORMATTED DISKS (BOTH 3.5 AND 5.25 INCH) AND AMIGA FORMATTED DISKS, at the Amiga's debut in New York there would be over 1 million Amiga 1000s in the world today! I D O N ' T W A N T A N i b m C O M P U T E R, W H A T I D O W A N T I S T O B E A B L E T O R U N T H E S A M E P R O G R A M S I N N A T I V E A M I G A 6 8 0 X 0 T H A T I U S E I N M Y W O R K P L A C E O N i b m C L O N E S !!! I W A N T T O B E A B L E T O T A K E M Y W O R K D A T A D I S K S A N D U S E E I T H E R M Y A M I G A O R T H A T O T H E R C O M P U T E R ! T H E A M I G A H A S T H E A B I L I T Y T O D O E V E R Y T H I N G T H A T I H A V E D E S C R I B E D ... W H Y D O I S T I L L N E E D T O U S E T H E O T H E R G U Y S C O M P U T E R T O D O M Y W O R K ?? T H E A / B 2 0 0 0 I S n o t T H E A N S W E R ! C O M M O D O R E H A S W A S T E D M I L L I O N S D E V E L O P I N G A N i b m H A R D W A R E C L O N E ! W H E R E A R E l o t u s 1 2 3, d b a s e I I / I I I, s y m p h o n y, m s - w o r d, m s p r o j e c t, f r a m e w o r k I I, w o r d s t a r, r : b a s e 5 0 0 0, e t c , T H A T R U N U N D E R 'E X E C' A M I G A N A T I V E ? I W I L L N E V E R B E A B L E T O R E P L A C E T H A T O T H E R C O M P U T E R O N M Y D E S K A T W O R K W I T H A N A M I G A U N T I L T H E S E P R O G R A M S R U N N A T I V E O N T H E A M I G A ! The Amiga is not a toy, what it is is a business computer that can emulate a toy! It is a business computer that can be used for anything a creative programmer can envision. It IS a BUSINESS COMPUTER that hackers love to hack on! IT IS A BUSINESS COMPUTER without any business software !!!!! > Even that's not the point. Most dealers >don't want to carry THREE Amiga brand computers. Stores will carry anything that sells! > The >A500 and A2000 products are possible because of 2 years of research >and development after the A1000 was launched, and therefore, if the >A1000 were to remain on the market, it would have to be changed >anyway. What are you talking about?? The A1000 has a FEATURE *** YES A REAL FEATURE *** that the others don't have. Commodore Marketing has never understood the potential of the WRITEABLE CONTROL STORE ! The ability to upgrade my 'firmware' by using a different boot disk is so far superior to tearing my Amiga apart and replacing ROMs that I will never, except under extream duress, replace the WCS with ROMs! I'm not saying this because I'm not a hardware hacker or afraid to open up my box, I was one of the Engineering techs at Amiga and also finished the GenRad 2275 ATE test suite for the Zorro board. > Those changes, if you think about it, would result in an >A500 in an A1000 case. YUCK ! >Q (cont): Most of us A1000 owners can't afford to dish out >another 1G for the A2000 and also to trash the 256 expansion ($100 >bucks) because it won't work for the A2000. >[What more can we do? GLAD you asked! What you could have done is created a connector for that board that could then be configured as 'FAST RAM' or a WCS! > > We've made a GOOD OFFER to upgrade. Did IBM >make such an offer to its millions of current PC users when it >launched the PS/2 line? Would you rather we didn't try to release any >new products? > What NEW product? You have repackaged the A1000 and stripped out a very valuable piece of hardware. Oh I guess you are refering to the clock circuit (A500) or maybe you are refering to the 1000w power supply in the A2000, for surely can't be refering to the A2000 IBM clone sockets!?? I can buy 3 PC clones for the price of one A2000 ! Where is the PRICE/PERFORMANCE improvement? Neither the A500 or the A2000 offers any performance improvements. What you have done is take functionality out of both the A500 and the A2000, no WCS, no NTSC color signals. The only real improvement is the keyboard, I tried to get Amiga engineering to use the DEC VT100 keyboard layout in 1984! I have NOT seen anything worthwhile come out of Commodore sinse the bean counters let the best HW/SW design team in Silicon Valley or maybe the world, slip away. > How long do you think we'd last in such a volatile market? A better question is where could Commodore have been today if its Marketing group had had its head screwed on in 1985??? > Last but not least, it's not as if the Amiga computer models >are incompatible with eachother - The jury is still out on that issue. >[So now we find out the real problem. You and many many others could >contact the software companies who create such products and see if >perhaps they could create a product you could upgrade to that will >run under 1.2.] This is NOT a consumer issue but rather a Commodore Marketing issue! Commodore, during their regression testing, uh youse guys did do regression testing didn't you, should know which of the commercial programe failed to run under 1.2. What has Commodore Marketing done to have the broken programs upgraded to run under 1.2/1.3/2.0? Individual software buyers mostly, 90%, only talk to their retailers. The retailers have no real insentive to ask the software houses to upgrade their down level programs... no immediate sale. >[There are reasons, I grant you, why a soft o.s is nice, but since >we wish to widen the appeal of our Amiga line, the ROM decision made >sense. Not to me ! > Plus, as we all know, there are so many ways to extend >the o.s AFTER booting anyway, that ROM hasn't ended future >expansion, and if major changes come, ROMs can be changed.] Not as easily as disks. > > Regards to all, > > > Paul Higginbottom > Sales Support Manager Hans Hansen ATE Test Development Coordinator GP7SM -- one more super whizzy from the company that started it all. These be my words and no one elses. I speak for me, Intel hires firms to speak for it, I ain't a firm.