From: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: New Amiga(s) Expansion/Future
Date: 16 Oct 92 05:13:30 GMT
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <1992Oct15.015015.11320@zds-oem.zds.com> easton@zds-oem.zds.com (Jeff Easton) writes:
> In article <1bi71rINNste@function.mps.ohio-state.edu> vidynath@function.mps.ohio-state.edu (Vidhyarath K Rao) writes:
> >In article <bruce.0b8d@zuhause.MN.ORG> bruce@zuhause.MN.ORG (Bruce Albrecht) writes:
> >>The PCMCIA peripheral market is starting to ramp up, because most of the
> >>PC laptops now use it.  I can't say that all PC PCMCIA cards will be usable
> >>on the A600, but if they are, the A600 users will have a lot to choose from.
> >
> >In some article I read several months back in some PC magazine, there was
> >a complaint that the PCMCIA cards can be used only one at a time. If that
> >is the case with the A600 also, I don't see A600 as a a good replacement
> >for the 500.
> >
> >I use the 500 with 2M fast ram, and two floppies. It is very easy to add
> >a hard disk if need be. I have asked several times on the net, but no
> >one has said categorically that I can add fast ram *and* other stuff
> >to the 600 via the PCMCIA at the *same* time. Till I see such a statement
> >made by some one from CBM, 600 is not a replacement for a 500.
> 
>   Well, since the A600 has only _one_ PCMCIA slot, it would tend to support
> the theory that it can only support a single card at a time.  Unless your
> talking about hot insertion or something...
> 
>   Lets see,  The A600 can have an internal IDE hard disk, megabytes of
> RAM in the trapdoor expansion slot (anybody know how much?)  and a
> LAN/memory/etc card in the PCMCIA slot.  It looks more expandable than
> the A500 to me.

Well, the *one slot* argument is most severe when applied to to palmtop
"computers" where thre is no other peripheral or storage option available.

It's still something of an issue in the A600 context where one wants to
point at the card and say that it's (a) memory expansion, (b) a modem/fax
port, (c) the network port, (d) maybe a SCSI port, (d) a floppy-like
interchange media port and (e) a ROM cartridge port.  It's easy to see
how a user might want a juke-box card changer to accomodate all these
possibilites.

However, since the A600(HD) does include or can be expanded to: a hard drive, 
floppy, 1 or 2 M-byte of memory + RTC, and full serial/parallel ports, the
needs of the average (or more properly 90'th percentile) user, the PCMCIA
port is largely "free" for pick-one credit-card application.  Some of the
the applications can be handled just as well or cheaply through serial port
or parallel port interfaced devices (assmuming avilable software drivers
in all cases).

On the other hand, the A600 clearly does not lend itself to plug-in CPU
accellerators or Zorro-bus expansion possibilities.  However the real
question isn't whether the A600 appears more or less powerful/expandable
than the A500 to existing Amiga owners, but rather whether it provides
an attractive price/performance/feature package to the prospective new
computer customer.

The A600 was designed as a smaller/cheaper/lighter baby brother of the A500,
so that we could have a more competitive low-end product, it was only the
availability of better technology (2.5" IDE drive, PCMCIA standard, 4-Mbit
DRAM) that makes today's baby brother come "out of the box" as a more
powerful machine than the original.

If you're talking about the techno-weenie (like us! 8-) customer that buys
his system from a dealer or mail order armed with all of those neat
add-in/on/under peripherals for the A500 you can obviously make a case
for the A500.  If you're talking about the customer that buys the A500/A600
from an electronics discounter, department store or Mom-n-Pop dealer, expects
to take it home, plug-n-play, then you've got a good case for the A600.

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,     work:   to be avoided at all costs...
but no way officially representing:   uucp:   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
Commodore, Engineering Department     domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware