From: zerkle@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction
Subject: Re: TOTAL novice questions
Date: 1 Sep 92 08:14:16 GMT
Reply-To: zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis

In article <COLIN.92Aug31094124@caicos.Cayman.COM> colin@Cayman.COM (Colin "Atilla" Steele) writes:
>
>Well, I'm absolutely clueless about the whole amiga scene, so if
>there's a FAQ, I'll be happy to peruse it!  Anyhow, here are my
>questions:

There is a FAQ list.  It is posted regularly to this group.  It should
be available still.

>1) What is an amiga 1000?

The original Amiga with a keyboard garage.  The best looking one, I'd
say.  Difficult to expand, and has old technology special chips.
Still, you can do a lot with one, they're really cheap used, and
everybody who has one is still in love with it.  Has a 68000 at 7 mHz
and no internal slots.  Can be expanded by plugging things into the
side.

>2) What is an amiga 2000?

It looks like a big IBM AT.  Enough room inside for 23 hard drives, 6
floppies, an optical drive, a couple accelerators, a flicker-fixer, a
Video Toaster, an MS-DOS computer on a card, a Macintosh emulator, an
RGB graphics card, and so forth.  The 2000HD comes with a hard disk
and interface.  The 2500 comes with an accellerator.  Normally runs a
68000 at 7 mHz and has a 16-bit Amiga bus and an IBM AT bus with lots
of slots, plus a video slot and a processor slot.


>3) What is an amiga 3000?

The slick, higher performance machine.  Has 68030 and 68882 (math)
chip at 25 mHz.  Can hold up to 18 megs of 32-bit RAM on the
motherboard.  Has a 32-bit bus with four slots and a built-in flicker
fixer.

You forgot to ask:

What's a 500?

A sleek, one-piece model.  The keyboard is integrated into the unit.
Basically the 1000 with better chips and a different case.  Can be
ingeniously expanded with the slot on the side with hard disk, memory,
faster processor, MS-DOS capability, and so forth.

What's a 3000T?

The 3000 in a tower case with more memory and disk thrown in and more slots
available.

What's a 600?

Sort of like the 500 with a newer operating system, no numeric keypad,
surface mount chips, and a different slot.  Seems to be built for the
video game crowd.

What's a CDTV?

An Amiga 500 with no keyboard and no mouse (use the remote control), a
CD ROM reader/CD player, and a library of CD software.  Looks like a
stereo component and can be expanded to the level of a basic 500.

What's an A4000?

We don't know yet.  Wait two weeks.  Then we'll know.

Cost?  Ask your dealer.  There are special deals and promotions all
the time.

>
>5) Which machine(s) can you run amiga's flavor of UNIX on?  Do you
>have to buy extra memory, etc. to do so?  How much does amiga UNIX
>cost?

Any Amiga with a 68030 or a 68020 with MMU can handle it.  You'll need
at least 100 megs of disk and 4 megs of RAM.  200 megs of disk and
8 or 12 megs of RAM would be better.  A tape drive and a big monitor
would also be a big help.  Note that if your machine is running on a
68040, it will not currently run Unix.

Costs vary, but it's about $1000.

>6) Are there C and/or C++ compilers available for amigas?
>
Yes.  There are a couple _free_ C compilers.  The two popular
commercial compilers are quite good.  YOu can also get many other
languages.  The multi-tasking environment is ideal for program
development.  You also don't have to fuss with weirdo memory
management things, and the graphics system is a joy to program.

I don't know how good the C++ compilers are, but they do exist.


>7) What is amigados?  (Plz, beyond the obvious, "It's an operating
>system.")

It's a lightweight, windowed, multitasking graphical operating system
with a wide variety of tools included.  YOu can use either the
icon-based system or the command-line system (or both at the same
time!).  It includes everything from a hard disk backup utility to an
icon editor and a couple of text editors.  It also includes a bunch of
runtime libraries that give a standard programming interface, and help
with programming your GUI.

>8) Are there compelling reasons for wanting to own an amiga system?
>Will I get more bang for the buck than, say, buying a (now very cheap)
>3- or 486 box with a whizzy monitor?

Go ask in comp.sys.amiga.advocacy.  

--
Dan Zerkle  zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu dz@stl.panasonic.com (805) 687-0110 968-1738
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction