Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga & Mindset
Message-ID: <4448@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 8 Aug 88 21:51:18 GMT
References: <7958@cup.portal.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 39

in article <7958@cup.portal.com>, Doug_B_Erdely@cup.portal.com says:
> XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.2946

> I was talking to a person I know who was telling me about his Mindset
> computer. How Great it was and all... He said that there where MANY things
> the Mindset could do that the Amiga could not even touch. Now if I am not
> mistaken.. The Mindset is not even made anymore correct?? He said that it
> could multi-task, Stereo sound etc...

The MindSet is surely out of business.  It was most noted for it's graphic
capabilities.  And that it was really cool looking, too.  I think a fair
portion of what your friend is talking about is a case of something growing
sweeter with age, but it's not entirely off base.

MindSet was Intel based, and it could run MS-DOS, but not PC-DOS, so it wasn't
PC compatible.  In the days of CPM, that wouldn't have been a problem, but
MS-DOS isn't really what you need for compatibility; you've got to conform
to the PC hardware standard was well to run much of that software.  To an
extent, every machine dating back to 8088, 8086, 80186, etc. could be called
"multitasking", since when running something like Concurrent CP/M, it would
multitask.  Given the right OS, even a C64 could multitask, so can a Radio
Shack Color Computer.  However, you really need a sufficiently powerful 
machine/OS combination (implying memory >> sizeof(average program)) to
EFFECTIVELY multitask, and I don't believe any Intel chip before the 80286
in it's native mode could even come close to the Amiga in that respect,
much less surpass it.

I don't recall much on the Mindset's display or sound.  Aagain, the display
was something truely amazing for the time, though it wasn't IBM compatible
and that helped kill it.  Never seen a comparison between MindSet's video
and Amiga's, though it would be interesting.  In any case, it's true that
the MindSet was truely superior to the IBM and Clones of it's time in many
ways, and it's unfortunate it couldn't survive against them.

>           - Doug -
-- 
Dave Haynie  "The 32 Bit 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!"