Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!vsi1!altnet!uunet!kitrain!amgraf!huver
From: huver@amgraf.UUCP (Huver)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: I thought Amiga is Amiga and IBM is IBM (was Re: Next Amiga)
Keywords: mutual exclusion?
Message-ID: <200@amgraf.UUCP>
Date: 2 Oct 88 01:45:58 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Amgraf Inc.,  Kansas City
Lines: 46


In article <4907@cbmvax.UUCP>, davh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie) said:
|
| What I want to know is, why does everyone think IBM compatibility and more
| powerful Amigas are mutually exclusive?

No, nobody has said anything about "mutually exclusive" (not until this
article); what people have been saying is: "... I prefer ..."


| ........			  The IBM slots in the Amiga 2000 required
| zero, 0, ZIP, NIL, NULL, none, void, etc. engineering effort.  They're just
| a bunch of connectors with power and ground in the right place.  Bridge
| cards are designed by people who'd otherwise be designing PC-10s or PC-20s
| or whatever, so they don't get in the way of Amiga people doing great Amiga
| things.  So what's the big deal?  You get something that lots of people want
| ... or even have a use for, and it doesn't cost anything.

The deal is that for those who do not want IBM compatiblity, the slots are
wasted space that not even tiny, let alone great, things can be done with.
When I buy something for myself, I wouldn't care what OTHER people want or
have use for, I'd only care about what I want.  It's very personal for
everyone.

Throwing in something free isn't always good, it has to match circumstances.
Say you live in a tropical area and you're looking to buy a house, and the
broker says: "Now look, the built-in HEATER system comes at no charge!"


Let's see, for a "more powerful Amiga": the next thing to happen is, as it
seems, for everyone to plug in the 68020/881/851 combo.  Now we have a problem:
the Z-2 bus is 16-bit only, so to increase the system performance, a Z-3 with
higher bandwidth perhaps is in need, and a new bridge card, and a new SCSI-2
card...  And so Commodore prepares for the A3000.

But wait, what about the "IBM compatible slots"?  Microchannel?  "Eh, 16- or
32-bit?"  Still use AT-style slots?  "But the new machine won't be attractive
to PS/2 owners!"  What's Commodore to do?

What a mess.  Do we still say "IBM compatibility" has ABSOLUTELY nothing to
do with "a more powerful Amiga"?


-- 
"Artificial Insanity is the thing for the 80's!"
 -huver	     {uunet!kitrain, plus5}!amgraf!huver