From: Christopher_Thomas_Winward@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: New Amiga(s) Expansion/Future
Date: Wed,  7 Oct 92 21:58:39 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world


Just what is Commodore trying to do? How is it possible to develop completely
dissimilar products in a single product line simply for the sake of product
differentiation?  The following examples are what I'm talking about:

   1: The development of the A4000 without a SCSI interface. (Obviously).

This means that an A4000 is a scaled-down A3000 with the AA chipset.  It
has a missing interface port, that highly useful SCSI port, that makes the
A3000 a truly powerful and extensible system.  'But you can buy one as an
interface board'.  This may be true, but we all know that more devices
(and useful ones at that) are able to be produced when developers know
that their target machines will definitely have hardware built in that
they can support.

   2: The development of the A600 with fully surface-mounted components.

The A500 is more powerful than this machine because of its sockets and
expandability.  The missing expansion port is another inconvenience.
The PCMCIA connector slot that this machine has is definitely a step
towards the future, and I suppose a version to connect to the A500 could
be worked out, but this still means that there are going to be very few
products for a while for that machine.

   3: The development of a CDTV/CD-ROM device for the A500.

Commodore has just introduced the A600, destined to be a replacement for
the A500.  Which must be exactly why Commodore has just released an
expansion unit for one of its products which they plan to discontinue.
It would have been a much more workable solution if they had designed a
PCMCIA interface to fit the A500 expansion bus, THEN design a CDTV unit
to plug into the PCMCIA connector.  I guess it was too much for them to do
something logically at the marketing division?

   4: Producing two completely different standards for 'high-end'
      machines vs. 'low-end'.

   There is no AA chipset in the A600.  There is no 68030 in the A600.
   There is no way to upgrade any chips other than the processor in
   ANY of the new surface mount Amigas other than a motherboard swap.

Who in their right mind would ever dare to develop specifically for the
A4000 and AA chipset when it only comes on one or two of the most
expensive machines?  No real applications will become available to make
use of the new chips unless they become standard.  How does Commodore
figure that making their own machines non-standard in their own product
line will help them?  The A600 is the machine that will define what types
of programs will be written for the Amiga line.  Using old, dead processors
like the original MC68000 along with the ancient 16-bit chipset is not
going to do anything to advance their state-of-the-art machines.
Why do they find it necessary to take a step backwards for every step they
take forwards?  And then they think they're moving? Somebody needs to give
them a clue at marketing and show them how to get off of the treadmill
(I KNOW you're running faster, but YOU AREN'T GETTING ANYWHERE *SLAP*).

   The number of A3000s sold, and the response to its introduction, proves
that there is a real market out there for the more powerful machines. C=
now backs away from the power users a bit and gives us a taste of ancient
technology in their new machines.  The A3000 was and still is a true
innovation in power from C=.  The A4000 is an A3000 without the SCSI port,
(but with a removable processor module), with a 68040 (you don't need an
A4000 for this), and the AA chipset (you can do a motherboard swap for
this (?)).  Overall, the A3000 looks like an expandable A4000 to me.
Gives us all lots of reasons to buy the 4000, doesn't it?

Three technical questions to Commodore: (postage paid to
                                         cbmvax.commodore.com)

   1: The MC68060 will probably be 64 bit bus, 128 bit internal CPU.

Does the removable processor chip then make sense?  Would you not require
an adapter board with the chip anyway, which would be what the CPU slot is
for (this assumes the removable processor module is on the CPU socket itself
and not the CPU expansion slot, like it would be in an A3000)?

   2: Zorro IV slots?

Would it even be useful to come up with a Zorro IV standard for a 64-bit bus
and if so would it be possible to do that on 100 pins by multiplexing a few
of them like Zorro III (I realize this requires some assumptions about 68060
configuration).  Put another way, is it possible to have Zorro II/III/IV-
compatible expansion slots?

   3: Why not include chipset-expansion cards?

Would it be so much more expensive, if you have to surface-mount the chips,
to at least allow them to be upgraded by putting them on an expansion card?
That way you just rip out the chipset board and install a new one to
upgrade.

Disclaimer: I have never seen an A4000, and have only heard of it through
postings around here, where I got my information.  Correction appreciated
if any of my assumptions or information is incorrect.
Sorry for the length, I just couldn't stand to see what it looks like
they're doing.  And ask about some stuff they may not be.

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