From: skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls)
Subject: Re: A4000 Specs? Who knows.
Organization: University of Mississippi, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 02:43:03 GMT

In article <MRMIKE.92Sep1192458@michelotti.ae.ge.com> Mike Passaretti <passaretti@crd.ge.com> writes:
>
># In message <1992Sep1.144215.19409@ra.msstate.edu>, 
># skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls) writes:
>
>skip> I agree.  Although the Amiga all-in-one approach is
>skip> okay, I'd like to see a machine with a CPU slot, 
>
>I'll buy that.
>
>skip> AA chipset, 
>
>Ok.
>
>skip> 4-8 Zorro III slots, 
>
>Ok, but who is your market?

The idea is to make the Amiga as configurable and expandable
as the average PC.  Cheap Zorro II boards could be used for
things such as I/O controllers while Zorro III boards would
be available for high-end video boards and the like.  Of course,
C= will have to deliver some sort of RTG, but we all know that
they will do so RSN.  :-)

>skip> and 4-8 AT slots.
>
>Ditto. Who needs 'em?  

Well, considering the fact that the PC has won the war, I for
one will be giving in and buying some sort of PC compatible.
I'd much rather have a nice 486 Zorro III BridgeBoard, but
it is unlikely that C= will develop such a thing.  I mean, the
586 is not even out, how can we expect C= to give us a 486?  :-)

>skip> Leave out the HD controller, the flicker-fixer,
>
>Now you've really got me confused.  No HD controller, maybe,
>but the flicker fixer has _got_ to be in there.  It's cheap
>anyway.  So's SCSI if you've got the real estate (And with 16
>slots on the motherboard, you're wasting a lot of real
>estate anyway).  

If the specs on the AA chipset are correct, a flicker-fixer may
not be needed.  There is mention of "promotion" into the 31kHz
modes, but whether this is just scan-doubling or some method
for making the VGA screen appear to be a HiRes screen remains
to be seen.  As for motherboard real-estate, 16 slots might indeed
be overkill.  A more realistic configuration would be 5 Zorro III
and 4 AT, just like the A3000T.  

>skip> and use standard SIMMs for both Chip and Fast RAM.  
>
>Pardon the bluntness, but you obviously don't understand how
>Chip RAM and the AA chip set work.  If you're hoping to use
>el-cheapo MAC SIMMS in there, you're sadly mistaken.  They
>don't support SC page mode operations.  The ones that do are
>more expensive (At last check) than the ZIPs in the 3000.
>Easier to install, I'll grant you, but more expensive.  I get
>the idea that you're trying to cut costs on this puppy, so
>that's a no go.  For main memory, the same deal.  

Hey, I'll take your word for it, I'm just a CS grad student who
is taking an introductory CE course.  :-)  However, I do have
an A3000 and am familiar with the painful process of installing
the ZIPs.  BTW, if the rumors about the A4000 are right, it may
indeed be using some sort of SIMMs...

>skip> I don't know what the AA chipset allows as far as the
>skip> amount of Chip RAM, but a couple of SIMMs for it and 4-8
>skip> for the Fast RAM should be enough.  Users could choose
>skip> either cheap Zorro II boards or go for fancier Zorro III
>skip> boards for things like hard drives.
>
>This _would_ open up the third party for ZIII SCSI-II
>controllers and the like, but I think mostly you'd end up with
>people wanting to know why their old PIO HD controllers slow
>down their new gee-whiz machines.  Bad PR and a support
>nightmare.  

Maybe, but it looks like the new machines will have IDE drives
and the ones on my 486 at work are no slouches.

>skip> Skip Sauls
>
>All in all, this machine would probably end up costing you at
>least as much as a 3000 and gains you very little.  The CPU
>slot is a good idea, but the rest is, I think, just a little
>off base.

Off base pretty much describes me.  :-)  Hey, I'd have rather
seen them strip the A3000 down a bit a year ago for their low-end
model and offer a whiz-bang SCSI-II, Zorro III, AA Chipset, and
33MHz 040 based A4000 right now.  But the info that I've seen 
seems to indicate that this ain't going to happen.

>                                                        - MM
>passaretti@crd.ge.com           {whatever}!crdgw1!copernicus!passaret
>mrmike@michelotti.ae.ge.com     {whatever}!crdgw1!copernicus!michelotti!mrmike

Skip Sauls
skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu