Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cbmvax!ulowell!page
From: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: EXTRA_HALFBRITE (was V1.3 OS?)
Message-ID: <5302@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 7 Mar 88 19:32:12 GMT
References: <7425@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <471@hub.ucsb.edu>
Reply-To: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 28

hbo@sbphy.ucsb.edu (Howard Owen) wrote:
>something like 40% of existing Amigas do not have EHB mode. It may
>sound like I am pulling that number out of a hat

Yes, it sounds like that.  Let's say there are 500,000 Amigas,
although CBM says there were more than that by Jan 1.  Let's also say
that 150,000 of them are Amiga 1000s (the size of the production run,
by reliable estimates).  Let's further say that a third of them did
not have EHB (a figure which I have no numbers on, this is just a
guess).  That means 10% were shipped without EHB.  Since some A1000
owners have installed new rev denises, and since there are probably
more Amigas out there than the >500,000 that CBM reported (on BIX
amiga.dev/market.info in case you are interested) in January, we're
under 10%.

So why haven't you seen more EHB code?  Probably two reasons:
	1. There is general confusion about whether it's
	   really available or not, and
	2. Most of the "grand-hackers" of the Amiga have early
	   A1000s without EHB.  They don't write code for features
	   they don't have.

EXTRA_HALFBRITE: consider it standard.

..Bob
-- 
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.  page@swan.ulowell.edu  ulowell!page
"I don't know such stuff.  I just do eyes."  -- from 'Blade Runner'