From: mks@cbmvax.commodore.com (Michael Sinz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Finally got to play with an A4000
Date: 11 Oct 92 16:06:38 GMT
Reply-To: mks@cbmvax.commodore.com (Michael Sinz)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA


barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett) writes:
>
>	I had a chance to play with an A4000 for about an hour today.
>I won't repeat what other people have said about it, but I did notice
>some interesting things.
>
>	It's true about the graphics speed -- a 16-color A4000 Workbench is
>as fast as a 2-color Workbench on the A3000.  A 256-color A4000 Workbench is
>about the same speed (maybe slightly slower) than a 16-color A3000 Workbench.
>
>	The dealer displayed some 24-bit pictures using AdPro, and they
>looked stunning.  I assume they were converted to 8-bit HAM mode.  There
>was no fringing I could see; they looked photo-quality.
>
>	Hard disk speed seemed slow to me... but then I noticed that the
>dealer had not used "AddBuffers" at all to speed up the disk access!  I did
>a quick "AddBuffers dh0: 200" and the speed became very acceptable.  [NOTE
>TO COMMODORE:  Increase the default AddBuffers on the A4000's you ship!]

I guess this could be possible...  The default is low since some games
use so much memory and assume memory locations that they don't work when
the OS uses more buffers.  However, with the A4000 we have more memory
so it should not be an issue...

>	The first thing I did was go into the Prefs drawer and try things
>out.  There are 2 new Preferences tools:  Locale (for setting language and
>country-specific parameters) and Sound (for beeps and sampled sound
>playback).  I noticed that several of the Preferences programs changed their
>look for (as far as I could tell) no real reason:  Time, Font, and
>IControl.  Gadgets were rearranged when (I thought) they looked fine in
>version 2.04.  In addition, some Prefs programs have new features; for
>example, WBScreen lets you put an IFF graphic as a backdrop, rather than a
>simple pattern.

The relayout was required for the language support.  Not all languages have
the same sized words as English does.  If your dealer had the other languages
installed you will have noticed that you can dynamically switch to, say,
German, and all of the prefs editors, workbench, etc. will use German rather
than english.

>	We had a very hard time trying to make the A4000+A1960 do full
>overscan using the Overscan preferences.  But then again, I really didn't
>know what I was doing with all those dozens of monitor modes listed by
>ScreenMode.  I couldn't get the Overscan to stretch far enough.  [NOTE TO
>COMMODORE:  Please document the differences between these new monitor modes
>very carefully, with enough detail to satisfy the technically adept user.]

Some of this is the 1960 and some of this is people thinking that non-video
modes have a concept of overscan...  Overscan is the area of the display that
in *television* (NTSC/PAL) standards is said to not always be visible.  Variations
from monitor to monitor give only a certain amount of room.  In NTSC, to
make the display look better (and PAL) the industry specified a scan that
will actually go well beyond the bessel of the display.  This scanning is
known as overscan as it scans beyond the edges of the display.

In high resolution monitor technology, this no longer exists.  In fact,
the monitors many times will not take a signal beyond the "major plateau"
(as some monitor vendors call it) of the picture tube.  This is because
it is very hard to maintain colour convergance and pixel linearity beyond
that point in the tube.  Also, the specifications for the displays are
also much more tightly followed.  That is, the retrace timings are different
and fixed (for the most part) and this limits your pixel resolution.

On multiscan monitors, the active area changes based on how well the monitor
can recalibrate itself to match the sync rate you are feeding it.

>	A few of the Prefs programs had a scrolling list setup that looks a
>bit like the ASL file requester.  Does GadTools now have a generic scrolling
>list gadget?  (Or has it always had one?  I don't know.)  If so, then great!

Yes, it always was there but the look has changed a bit:  There is now a
highlight bar...

>	The Palette Prefs have changed considerably -- you now use
>a circle (color wheel?) to choose colors.  It was very intuititive.
>You can also choose the 8 colors that have special meanings:  text
>color, background color, outline color, menu color, menu text color,
>etc.  Some of these colors were forced by the program to be identical.
>Why is this?
>
>	Next, I looked around for new programs and new features.  The
>Calculator program now has a menu, appears to support the Clipboard (it had
>cut/copy/paste menu entries anyway), and has a "show tape" option to display
>your whole sequence of calculations as you do them.
>
>	I found some unidentifiable files in the devs:DataTypes drawer.
>They had names like ILBM, 8SVX, and AmigaGuide, and their default Workbench
>tool is c:AddDataTypes.  Is this some new way to recognize certain types of
>files?  Any more details on it?

The new tool called MultiView uses a new technology we have called DataTypes.
Basically, if a data type is defined for a file format, MutliView will be
able to display it.  For example, MultiView will display ASCII files, ASCII
files with ANSI escape sequences (underline, bold, etc), AmigaGuide files
with full AmigaGuide/hypertext support, IFF-ILBM files (in windows or screens)
and IFF-8SVX files.  Others are sure to come (we have an example for loading
GIF and BMP files) and any program/utility which uses datatypes will magically
get this new feature.

>	I found CrossDOS in the Commodities drawer, so I assume it's
>a commodity now -- very sensible.

This is the configuration program.  Normally, all you need to do is move
the PC0 (or PC1, etc) icon to the DEVS/DOSDrivers drawer and it will
automatically get mounted at boot time.

>	Now for some great news -- the standard (ASL) file requester
>operates MUCH MUCH faster than in version 2.04.  I opened a file requester
>and stretched it to fill the entire screen.  Then I listed the c: directory
>(fairly large on this dealer's machine).  There was a half second of delay,
>and then all the filenames appeared instantaneously, and in sorted order.
>Wonderful.

Martin did a wonderful job with it...  It is *much* faster.

>	One bad thing I noticed:  when flipping screens between interlaced
>and non-interlaced screens (pressing Left-Amiga-M), the A1960 monitor image
>made a big and awful-looking "jump" as it switched resolutions.  I don't know
>whether the A1960 was at fault or not.

This only happens when the scan rates do not match and the monitor needs to
resync to a different scan rate.  Some monitors do it faster and some do it
slower.  Some show a jump, some nicely go blank.  If you don't switch scan
rates you will not have this problem.

>	Another thing I noticed is that highlighted text in the Shell, such
>as the first line of the usage message for DiskSalv, changes color while the
>shell window is scrolling.  The effect is unpleasant.  However, I went home
>and tried this on an A1000 in interlaced mode, and I saw the same effect.
>Somehow, I never noticed it before.  What causes it?  [Note to prevent
>rumors -- I don't know if DiskSalv comes with 3.0 or whether the dealer
>put it on disk himself.]

That is strange...  We are now running interleaved bitmaps and this should
not have been seen.  Maybe something forced the system to open the screen
in standard bitmap form.  (Like fragmented CHIP RAM...)

>	So... would I sell my A3000 to buy an A4000?  Probably not, because
>I have no need right now for more colors, and my 68030's speed is
>sufficient.  IMHO, the A4000 and AmigaOS 3.0 are evolutionary, not
>revolutionary.  But if you have an unaccelerated A1000, A2000, or A500, and
>have the money, take a serious look at the A4000.

I would also not sell my A3000 unless I needed the money.  I would, however,
buy an A4000 if graphics/AGA support in my software or the software I use
was at all important to me.  Also, if speed is something you like, the A4000
is one fast machine.  But then, I do love that 68040 processor...

/----------------------------------------------------------------------\
|      /// Michael Sinz  -  Senior Amiga Systems Engineer              |
|     ///                   Operating System Development Group         |
|    ///   BIX:  msinz      UUNET:  mks@cbmvax.commodore.com           |
|\\\///    "Can't I just bend one of the rules?" said the student.     |
| \XX/     The Master just looked back at him with a sad expression.   |
\----------------------------------------------------------------------/