From: Aric.Caley@ofa123.fidonet.org
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Future Amiga chipset
X-Sender: newtout 0.02 Nov 17 1992
Date: 15 Dec 92  12:15:00

> Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
> From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N. Barrett)
> Message-ID: <Bz85pK.DHt@news.iastate.edu>
> Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
>
>   You are brainless.  is SCSI II the only SCSI design available for use in
> a personal computer?  The existing SCSI design used in the A3000 is pseudo-
> SCSI II (though hardly a full implementation), and the SCSI chipsets used in
> the A3000 are now available quite cheap.

It still would have been an unnecessary extra cost for those who would want
to go get the SCSI-II card anyway.

>   I agree that Commodore did the right thing by leaving SCSI II out of the
> A4000, but I do not think Commodore did the right thing by leaving SCSI out
> of the A4000.  In a cost/performance measurement, the A3000's SCSI design
> probably exceeds the SCSI II design that will be used on the A3090 SCSI II

The cost/performance ratio of IDE far exceeds the SCSI design in the A3000.
Cost:   Almost  nothing;  performance:   Close  to that of the typical SCSI
drive.

> card, especially in a personal computer like the A4000.  Yes, the A3090 will
> offer 3-4 times the performance of the A3000, but only with the very latest
> and very expensive SCSI II hard drives.  And it is doubtful that SCSI II
> chipsets are available very inexpensively yet.

I  remember  reading about a SCSI-II controler that was pin-compatible with
the one in the A3000 (though it wasnt recomended as a drop in replacement).
Thats  a  single chip, not chipset.  I doubt it really costs that much more
than  normal  SCSI  -  hey,  look  at the Falcon 030..  its got SCSI-II (of
course, it's not out yet..).

>  In short, for a personal computer priced under $3000 -- which would be
> packaged with a slower SCSI hard drive -- the cheaper implementation of SCSI
> that the A3000 used would have been fine.  Since the design was already
> done,
> using this design might have actually allowed the A4000 to become available

Not likely.  The IDE design was already done, too - for the A600.

> SOONER.  And the A3090 could still have been marketed for people who wanted
> to upgrade their A3000's and A4000's with super-fast high-capacity SCSI II
> hard drives.  Finally, implementing the A3000's SCSI design in the A4000
> probably would not have raised the price by much since the SCSI chips used
> in
> the A3000 should be available dirt cheap by now.

It still cost a lot more than IDE did.

The solution, for you, is this:

Pretend  the A4000 hasn't come out yet.  When the SCSI-II card is released,
pretend that the A4000 is released at the same time.

> -!-
> | Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
> -!------------------------------------------------

 -Dances With Coyotes - World's slowest programer-Given that God is infinate-
 -AKA Dances V2.0, Coyote, Critter, Magnet, Major-and  that  the universe is-
 -- Former Net-Lurker - YES, an AMIGA godammit! --also  infinate,  would you-
 --- Still limping along with AmigaOS 1.3  :(  ---like a toasted  tea  cake?-


--- Maximus 2.00
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy