Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!hull
From: hull@hao.ucar.edu (Howard Hull)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Ameristar A1000 boards, ASDG A2000 and 1 plus/ the Future
Message-ID: <1069@hao.ucar.edu>
Date: 2 Jan 88 21:53:27 GMT
References: <6400@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <1064@hao.ucar.edu> <913@sbcs.UUCP>
Organization: High Altitude Obs./NCAR, Boulder, CO
Lines: 90
Summary: Ameristar and ASDG plans and inventories?

In article <913@sbcs.UUCP>, root@sbcs (Root) writes:
> In article <1064@hao.ucar.edu>, hull@hao.ucar.edu (Howard Hull) writes:
> > 
> > Not the point _I_ would have raised, Mr. Spencer. ...
> > [stuff on how one might run ENET on an A1000 with Ameristar boards
> >  if one could only find and buy the _known to at one time exist_ boards,
> >  the ones that work on the Amiga side of the system, and which are
> >  Zorro-I format boards, I believe...]

> 	Simple.  Just tell the boss man's wife to go out and purchase
> 	one of those after market Zorro-II slots on an A1000 box.

Ok, ok, I surrender.  I apologize for trying to be funny instead of asking
a question that might have a useful answer.  Darn.   You have the first
question in the midst of your above comment.  Who makes Zorro-II boxes
for the Amiga 1000 and can ship same in say, six weeks time?  Information
I have from ASDG indicates that the "A2000 and 1" will have Zorro II slots
when it is finally shipped.  So far my data indicates that it has not shipped.
I am starting to wonder if it ever will ship, as I have not heard anything
recent about it.  With respect to that, there was the recent net brouhaha
which began with Andy Finkle's comments in 2696@cbmvax and later involved
several others at CBM, including Robbins (2756@cbmvax) (2786@cbmvax), all
trying hard to be helpful without violating anyone's rules.  A forceful
summary of the situation was submitted by Craig Hubley (1559@unicus.UUCP);
it spelled out the options and listed all sorts of things that CBM ought to
offer (for less than $40 [Canadian!], yet).  It's pretty clear at this point
that CBM won't offer those things, never mind the price.  It is also pretty
clear that the A2000 upgrade offer for A1000 owners was the solution they
did offer, and that everyone who bought an A1000 should have appreciated it,
and taken advantage of it.  I would have, were it not for the rumors about
the Fat Agnus 1 Megabyte blitter address space that could be out as early
as March 1988.  If ASDG cannot do the A2000 and 1, then I would be satisfied
to wait until Amiga advances actually made possible running something I could
not run on the A1000.  One thing that would _not_ be, for example, is a
21.477Mhz 68020 board - that's feasible with the A1000 as is.  One thing it
would be is an integrated machine readable schematic capture and surface
mount CAE-CAD-CAM package that needed 1 megabyte of blitter address space.

I am still watching the net for news about the ASDG 2000 and 1.  Given the
effect of the CBM upgrade offer and certain dealer buy-back programs, if
I were working in ASDG marketing, I would be looking at the numbers with
respect to setting corporate priorities for A2000 products v.s. the ASDG
A2000 and 1.  Not to mention that several tough problems face the designers
of the A2000 and 1.  To name a few, how do you add the video slot - there's
nothing of that sort on the A1000 expansion connector; how do you handle
the fact that many of the external interrupts are not brought out on the
A1000 connector, though it does have some from the blitter: Dave Haynie
(2807@cbmvax) mentions that the A1000 had /ILP0 through /ILP2 and /INT2
plus /INT6; earlier (2640@cbmvax) Dave said the A2000 has EINT1, EINT4,
EINT5, and EINT7.

More questions: Is the ASDG MiniRack C a Zorro-II box?  I got the impression
that it was Zorro-I format (shape) and Zorro-II pin-out.  But that impression
is probably somehow WRONG.

Maybe Perry (ASDG) would like to comment on some of this.  (Then again,
maybe he wouldn't).

> 	Ameristar sold a tack on the side A1000 product for quite a 
> 	while.  Aside from costing a small fortune in (low volume) sheet 
> 	metal and UL/VDE/CSA approved power supplies, it just wasn't a great
> 	seller. But while you're asking questions, what you really want
> 	to know is this: "Why did Commodore change the Zorro spec?"  
> 	Enough said?
No, no, I don't wanna know that.  I already know that.  As far as I'm
concerned, CBM can change whatever they want whenever they want.  They
have to make money to stay alive, so I'm sure they'll do whatever they
think is necessary to do that.  I was sort of hoping that some bright
soul would pop up an article that said something to the effect of (To me:)
"Ok, you nerd.  You could have called Ameristar, and they would have
told you that SuchnSucha Distribution Company has 150 of 'em in stock,
and if you can get up a Chase Manhattan draft for $134,850.00 you can
have all of 'em delivered to your door by UPS tomorrow."

That's a lot easier than finding a diaper service in these days and times...
> 
> 					Rick Spanbauer
> 					SUNY/Stony Brook (& Ameristar)
Thanks for the info you've contributed so far, Rick...  [But I want MORE :-)]
Did someone ask - "Is there a Zorro-II Ameristar card for the Amiga side?"
		  "What's its part number and list price?"
		  "Is there an IBM compatible Ameristar card for the IBM side?"
		  "Is it 8088, XT, or AT compatible, or all three?"
		  "What's its part number and list price?"

"Anything worth doing right with an IBM PC...
				is not worth doing at all with anything else."

						Howard Hull
						hull@hao.ucar.edu