From: amell@nyx.cs.du.edu (Andrew P.Mell)
Subject: Re: Amiga / 486 Owner needs information on ARM A5000 / A570(?)
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Distribution: comp
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 22:13:19 GMT

In article <JKH.92Jul27191234@sparc3.lotus.com> jkh@sparc3.lotus.com (Jordan K Hubbard) writes:
>
>1. What's the difference between the A5000 and the A570 (or is that
>   A520?)?  If I want the fastest machine that support SCSI from the
>   outset, which should I buy?  Assume money no significant object.

A5000 only expands officially to 4 meg (there are third party 8meg upgrades)
The other machine you are referring to is the A540, it comes with SCSI
and a 120MB SCSI drive standard, if you pick your dealer well you get
8 meg of memory, the 540 supports up to 16meg officially. A5000 doesnt have
SCSI standard, comes with IDE. They are both the same speed (near enough)

What happened to question 2? :-)

>3. What's the maximum practical resolution of the machine?  That is,
>   I'd like a decent array of colors and GOOD refresh rate.  Assume a
>   high-end monitor (well, it's a 17" MAG) that can take whatever the
>   Acorn dishes out.  Can I get SVGA quality graphics, at least? (that
>   is to say 1024x768x256).  Does the Acorn have any graphics assist?

My 540 comfortably produces 800x600x16 at a high refresh rate, anything more
than this slows the machine down excessively. You wont get 1024x768x256 on
a standard machine, but Ive heard there are graphics cards coming out to fix
this. No graphics assist.

>4. What are the audio capabilities in comparison to the Amiga?  We could
>   compare with the PC, but even with a Roland GS sound card, it's still
>   apples and oranges.  Given that the Amiga's also digital audio out (4
>   channels), we'll call it the closest comparison.

Archimedes does 8 channels, supposed to be a hell of a lot better than the
amiga, but someone else can tell you more about it.

>6. How good is the operating system software, really?  Does it compare
>   favorably with AmigaDOS 2.0?  We won't mention DOS 5.0 since it's not
>   really an operating system (I use it, I know).  Is it well structured?
>   Extensible?

Sheesh, you cant compare it to thrashy AmigaDOS 2.0, its a totally different
regime of quality. Its very well structured, and very extensible.

>7. How good is the UNIX port?  What's its lineage?  V.4 or BSD 4.[23]?
>   Anybody using it?

Its derived from BSD4.3 with Sys.V extensions, good, but could use a bit
of work, people do use it.

>8. How good is the general application software?  Many (or any?) 3rd
>   party software available of any note?

Plenty of software available, contrary to what the magazines seem to think
most of a far better quality than that found on the amiga/PC. Notable
software is Impression - a DTP package.

>9. Any good ANSI C / C++ compilers available for it?  GCC?

Acorn Desktop C V.4 is the reference, there are a couple more, but this
is the one, no GCC, hopefully soon. No C++ yet unfortunately but I'm not
a fan of C++ so I couldnt careless.

>10.  A reasonably good-sized array of PD software?  Is most GNU software
>     ported?

At the last count I had theres about enough PD software to fill 3 CDROMs
of 660MB each. GNU software has been ported, but none of the 'big' stuff has.

>11. Any good magazines for the Acorn user?  Perhaps something that remotely
>   compares with the production standards of PC Professional or Amiga Format?

BBC Acorn User, Micro User, Archimedes world. (The latter is thrash)

>13. Is Acorn's corporate attitude towards the machine any better than
>   Commodore's is towards the Amiga (Abysmal)?  I.E. does the machine really
>   have any future?

Sure, the Archimedes has a future, Acorns attitude leaves something to be
desired sometimes, but on the whole they give a damn sight better quality
support compared to some other computer companies I can think of.

Andy