Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: yet more on the AA chipset...
From: lkoop@TIGGER.STCLOUD.MSUS.EDU (LaMonte Koop)
Date: 19 Aug 92 16:44:56 -0600
Reply-To: lkoop@TIGGER.STCLOUD.MSUS.EDU
Organization: St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN

In article <1992Aug19.081758.1844@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu>, spice@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu writes:
>In article <34411@cbmvax.commodore.com>, daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:
>> 
>>>Hmmm.  I'm now wondering where the Amiga can go from here.  If doubling
>>>the clockspeed doesn't produce results, what changes could be made
>>>in the future to improve performance?  
>> 
>> There are plenty of things that can improve Amiga chip bus speed.  We have more
>> than enough architectural ideas floating around to take care of most of the
>> problems, eventually.  But obviously, any drastic changes take a long time and
>> risk low-level compatibility, so they have to be done very carefully.
>> 
>
>Dave , why does Commodore have to maintain compatability in the Amiga line?
>Apple makes major changes that break a lot of software all the time. Why
>cant Commodore do the same? I'm tired of Commodore crippling the Amiga's
>future by trying to stay compatible with the 7mhz 68000 crowd. We want memory
>protection and resource tracking.

    Apple is not exactly known for pleasing people with its habit of software
(and hardware) breaking changes.  However, Apple at present is big enough in
market share and namesake that it can afford to irritate in order to advance.
Unfortunately, the Amiga does not have that luxury to a great degree.  Sure,
a major custom chip upgrade, or even complete architectural rework could be
done at the expense of most major software currently available.  However,
I do believe Commodore is right not to do this.  The Amiga floundered very
badly in its beginning because of software inavailability.  It still has
problems with that today in various categories.  If a new Amiga line were
to suddenly come out with little to no software base the odds are very likely
it would not get far given that today the PC clone sector and Macintosh have
an even greater software base incentive than existed when the Amiga first
came out.
    There has been an incessant stream of complaints and downright nasty
statements made to Commodore about the software that did break with the
2.0x release of the OS.  This, even with the amount of work done to make the
new OS as compatible as humanly possible and still incorporate vast improvements
over earlier versions.  Can you imagine the effect of releasing a totally new
machine which would not run most older software at all?  A good number of
rather vocal A1000 owners have outright flamed Commodore for making their
machine obsolete, and some have decided not to upgrade or continue with the
Amiga.  (I do not agree with their reasons, but it is their perogative).  A
good bet would be that current A500/A2000/A3000 owners would tend to act the
same way in a hypothetical new machine scenario as stated.  In general, a
sudden new release of an incompatible system would not be take favorable by
most I would think.

                  ----------------------------------------
            LaMonte Koop -- SCSU Electrical/Computer Engineering
 Internet: lkoop@tigger.stcloud.msus.edu -OR- f00012@kanga.stcloud.msus.edu
               "You mean you want MORE lights on this thing???"
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