From: "thomas napier" <thomas.napier@canrem.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: hiya dave! a500 repla
Date: 18 Aug 92 20:34:57 EST
Reply-To: "thomas napier" <thomas.napier@canrem.com>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Canada Remote Systems


-> CPU slot.  There's really no logic to leaving the '030 in place on such a
-> system, it's just money you'd have to spend for no real benefit.  On the A2500,
-> the cost of the 68000 wasn't enough to worry about, and there was some pretty
-> reasonable utility in letting the 68000 back-in for development purposes and
-> the occasional mis-behaved game.  For A3000's, you need a 68000 system for
-> testing anyway if you're a developer, so there's little sense in an '030
-> dropback mode.

I told you it was a good Idea, not bad for a construction worker...
 
-> Strangely enough, it seems trendy in the PC Clone business to build systems
-> just like this -- no motherboard processor, you pick the CPU of choice for
-> your CPU slot.  Macs haven't done that yet, though their "Processor Direct"
-> slots are kind of a CPU/Coprocessor slot clone, only with steps taken to
-> make processor upgrades there difficult.
-> 
-> >    Thomas Napier
-> 
-> Any relation to Jack?
-> 
-> 
-> --
-> Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"

Jack's back my friend, and he's gonna whack the Bat....
 
He's my cousin. grin
 
Ok here goes, it's been estimated that to do a production design of an A500
replacement motherboard that is 32 bits wide with atleast an 030 at 25/50
mhz (socketed) (optional 881/882 (to be added later or included))
expandable to 16 Megs with 1 or 4 meg (32bit) ram simms and whatever else
is neccessary to allow future chipset compatability (including amber
de-interlacing chip). this would cost about $120,000 in design and setup
and the end user price would be about $650 American ($750 in Canada + Gouge
and Screw Tax (GST)). By doing this all A500 peripherals that are external
could still be used with the new motherboard (A590, A570, GVP series II or
even my ancient (But still working flawlessly after all these years)
HDA-506 ect.).  

There are a number of reasons why I think this should be done. Users would
simply go to their dealer and ask for the upgrade (motherboard swap), in
doing so the user doesn't have to buy all new peripherals and uses the same
keyboard, case, (might need a new power supply though?) et cetera (since
the bus outside would remain 16 bit Zorro I (with Pass though (I don't
zorro III, video toaster/TBC or a 24bit card (gasp!)).

This would save money for Commodore as they wouldn't need to design a new
case or keyboard ect. The main point of this is that upgrading to a "new"
higher end computer for the average user would definately be an attractive
alternative to buying a new high end computer. After all who would want to
buy all the old non-upgradable ones? or worse having the old computer
sitting in the closet collecting dust?
 
ttyl
    Tom Napier

 
 
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