Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: CEBIT Commodore Announcements (A2500, A3000)
Message-ID: <3517@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 24 Mar 88 21:25:15 GMT
References: <247@sdrc.UUCP>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 58

in article <247@sdrc.UUCP>, crgabb@sdrc.UUCP (Rob Gabbard) says:
> Summary: Availibility ? Cost ?

>> [Some announcement of A2500AT and A2500UX packages]

>   Does anyone have any further info on this announcement ? 
> I guess the biggest questions would be about availibility and cost. I was set 
> to buy a 2000 next week until this.  

				DON'T PANIC  

It seems a bit was lost between the press conference in Hannover and Usenet
here.  Having been at the press conference, I might be of some help here.  The
announced systems are bundled A2000 packages, I don't even know if they'll
be sold the same way in the US Market or not.  

>  - Is the windowing shell on the A2500UX (and A3000 I would suppose) based on 
>    X Windows or NEWS ?  Commodore would be making a BIG mistake if it were not. 

The windowing system is a custom windowing system, but more of a low-level
window manager.  For the UNIX user, it give you a way to start up new virtual
terminals in windows, each with their own shell and some other attributes,
such as terminal emulations.  There are also function calls for programmable
graphics.  I believe that things like X or NEWS would sit on top of this 
underlying window manager when ported to Amiga UNIX.

>  - Do the AT and UX have 68851 chips ?  I would think the UX would have to. 

Yup.  Current plans, as best they've told me, say that all A2620 boards will
have 68851s on them.

>  - Will UNIX be available for the 2000 with the x020 board since it has a 
>    68851 ? 
>  - Was any hardware shown or is all of this VAPORWARE for the moment ?

We showed the Amiga UNIX, a real AT&T V.3, running on an A2000 and A2620
board at the show.  Even let hackers do stuff on it.  Runs like a champ.
I really don't know how close the UNIX is to being complete, but it does
work real nicely now, you can edit and compile on it, its fast, etc.  You
really won't believe how fast the text scroll is on the thing.  Hardware,
in the form of the A2620, is nearly complete, and may be available before
UNIX.  

>  - Is a 2000 upgradable to a 2500 ? (If so, how much ?)

A2000+A2620(2meg)+A2286+A2090A+40MegDrive+NewCustomChips+Monitor == A2500AT
A2000+A2620(4meg)+A2090A+100MegDrive+NewCustomChips+Monitor+UNIX == A2500UX

Or some such arrangement.  The package deal monitor options are supposed to
be your choice of A2024 monitor (1008x800x2 monochrome) or A1950 monitor
(15kHz/31kHz "bisync" monitor, supposed to have really nice dot pitch, etc).

> Rob Gabbard                               |    UUNET: uunet!sdrc!crgabb

-- 
Dave Haynie  "The B2000 Guy"     Commodore-Amiga  "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: D-DAVE H     BIX: hazy
		"I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!"