Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ulysses!hector!eric From: eric@hector.UUCP (Eric Lavitsky) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Amiga ST? Message-ID: <10299@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> Date: 19 May 88 17:23:49 GMT References: <48.229281A2@rubbs1.UUCP> Sender: netnews@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com Reply-To: eric@hector (Eric Lavitsky) Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill Lines: 71 In article <48.229281A2@rubbs1.UUCP> Steve_Godun@rubbs1.UUCP (Steve Godun) writes: >The chances of an Amiga running ST software is about as remote as seeing a sperm >whale climb up Mt Everest and announcing that McDonalds hamburgers are cheap >substitutes for floor wax. Thank the lord! >Why? First, the programming invloved would be too extensive, taking up at least >400K-500K, which for many Amiga owners would render the "ST Emulator" worthless, >since all they have is 512K. Next, the speed of the emulator would be about >nil, since an Atari 1040ST running at a full 8Mhz can emulate a wimpy 6502 Atari >8-bit at about .5Mhz. Since the Amiga is almost a full point slower than the ST >(8Mhz for the ST compared to 7.16Mhz on the Amiga), the Amiga would process at >about .00001Mhz running S Well, not exactly. Remember - a good chunk of that 8Mhz on your Atari is usurped for video control and refresh as well as floppy disk I/O - the Amiga has extra support hardware to offload it's 68000 from doing this. >ware. Third, since most games (since that's what you'd be running, so you say) >run in ST low resolution, which is half the resolution of the Amiga screen both >vertically and horizontally. Thus, for each refresh cycle of the screen, the >Amiga would have >to color in FOUR pixels to match ONE ST pixel, slowing down the Amiga even more. Not really guy - the Amiga has a very flexible display architecture, it can even stoop down to the Atari's "low resolution" mode (320x200) - 'cept it can do it in 32 colors at a time and more with some tricks. Even if it were in 640x200 mode, the Amiga would shove display bits around faster than the ST thanks again to it's custom video co-processor. >If you think I'm putting down the Amiga, you're basically right. Being an ST >owner and avid Atarian since '79, I can give you many reasons why the Amiga >can't stand up to the ST, but I don't want to start a war and I'm sure you >have the maturity not to start one either. Wrong - you *do* want to start a war, otherwise you wouldn't have said that you were putting the Amiga down. If the ST is so great, why do you find it necessary to put the Amiga down in public so? I'd really recommend you learn something about the Amiga before continuing any further (hey, like read the manuals - you can find them in any B Daltons). >More vaporware for the Amiga will be announced shortly. > > -STeve Betcha I can name more ST vaporware products than you can name Amiga vaporware products ;-) >PS: Why do you think the ST can emulate a Mac and the Amiga can't? Why don't you read David Small's recent message in Comp.sys.amiga and find out. Oh, you mean you don't already read that group? Sounds like you're not very informed then about what's going on in the Amiga community - I make it a point to read this ST group as well as ST oriented magazines so *I* know what the ST is all about. Hey - since you're on rubbs why don't you stop by the JAUG (Jersey Amiga User's Group) meeting at the Rutgers Physics Auditorium tommorrow evening (Friday, May 20th, 7:30 P.M.) and see some of the neat things an Amiga can do. We're gonna have the Amiga User Group premiere of a fully interactive 3D editing and animation system called Caligari - it may open your eyes a bit. Cheers, Eric ARPA: eric@topaz.rutgers.edu or eric@ulysses.att.com UUCP: {wherever!}ulysses!eric or {wherever!}rutgers!topaz!eric SNAIL: 34 Maplehurst Ln, Piscataway, NJ 08854 "To err is human; To really f*ck up requires the root password."