Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!ukma!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!mp1u+ From: mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Death of the 1000 (was: Re: Transactor, Vol 1 Issue 3) Message-ID: Date: 20 Dec 88 18:59:46 GMT References: <12713@cup.portal.com> , <420@solaria.csun.edu> Organization: Carnegie Mellon Lines: 60 In-Reply-To: <420@solaria.csun.edu> ecphssrw@solaria.csun.edu (Stephen Walton) writes: > Yes, but it also seems to be true that not many 1000 owners want to > upgrade their existing machine either, judging by the underwhelming > suppport ASDG got for their 2000-and-1 quasi-announcement.* NOT TRUE. When I was shopping for extra memory and a hard disk interface for my 1000, I honestly wanted to "do it right"; I wanted to find an A2000-compatible card cage, buy an A2000 DMA disk controller, and purchase a Zorro II memory board somewhere farther down the line. I am not made of money. ASDG was planning on offering the 2000-and-1 for something like $899. That is a VERY steep prerequisite for adding peripherals to my system -- a prerequisite I simply cannot afford. If I could afford the 2000-and-1, I would be better off selling my 1000 and replacing it with a 2000 -- I would get the video slot, the capability of using the new chipset, and have a system that wouldn't take up an entire desk. It is not surprising that ASDG only got about 30 reservations out of the 300 they needed to do a production run. The other two alternatives in the A1000 card cage market were the Pacific Peripherals SubSystem 1000 and the Bill's Boards BusExpander. The PP product was major vaporware, though it was close to the ideal expansion product: three Zorro II slots with bus pass-through, sits under the machine, $299 suggested retail -- a product which had most of what I wanted and didn't cost a fortune. If PP hadn't continually pushed back the release date on the thing I probably would have waited for it -- is it available yet? The last time I talked with the people at PP they said "mid-december". The Bill's Boards product, while cheaper than the 2000-and-1, is still pretty expensive ($495, not including the cost of the power supply and baby-AT case you'll have to purchase separately) and leaves out the one feature that would justify such a price; the A2000 co-processor slot (which was to be included in the 2000-and-1). So IMHO, the problem is not that A1000 owners don't want to expand their machines, it's that they have shit to choose from in the marketplace. I bagged the idea of buying a cardcage and bought a Microbotics Starboard + Stardrive. It's not what I originally wanted, but it is relatively inexpensive and it does the job. If one of the peripheral manufacturers could come out with the following product I think they could get some sales: * Two or three Zorro II slots * A2000 coprocessor slot * bus pass-through not necessary * suggested retail less than $399 Unfortunately, it would require some intelligent thought from them. -- Michael Portuesi / Information Technology Center / Carnegie Mellon University INET: mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu / BITNET: mp1u+%andrew.cmu.edu@cmccvb UUCP: ...harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!mp1u+ "I'm very sorry, Master, but that WAS the backup system" -- Slave