From: skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls)
Subject: Re: Commodores AGA uppgrade board.
Organization: University of Mississippi, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 15:44:25 GMT

In article <C16BvB.Dop@news.iastate.edu> barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N. Barrett) writes:
>In article <1993Jan20.191926.22449@ra.msstate.edu> skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls) writes:
>>In article <C15zt6.27v@news.iastate.edu> barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N. Barrett) writes:
>>
>><babbling about an AGA board for the A3000 deleted>
>>
>>>   Let's compare prices.  An A4000 with a SCSI II card and a deinterlacer
>>>card versus an A3000 with an AGA board:
>>>
>>>A4000:                         $2700
>>>Deinterlacer card:              $250
>>>SCSI II card:                   $250
>>>Total:                         $3200
>>>
>>>A3000/25:                      $1200
>>>AGA upgrade board:              $700
>>>Amiga HD floppy drive:          $150
>>>Total:                         $2050
>>>
>>>Savings:                       $1150
>>
>>Marc, you want a de-interlacer, yet you don't specify one for the A3000's
>>AGA board, so add another $250.  Your savings drop to around $900.
>
>   That is ludicrous.  Any deinterlacer plugged into the A4000 would only
>handle the ECS color capabilities and resolutions.  So if you would ever
>want to use such a color/resolution mode, you could just drop back to the
>internal chipset in the A3000.  

Why do would I want to?  Any well-written program will be promoted via
the system software and the various utilities.  If a de-interlacer were
available which handled the AGA modes, I might consider it.

BTW, the A3000's deinterlacer has to be disabled to use the 800x600
mode.  The first company to offer a de-interlacer which can handle
the 800x600, 1280x400, etc. modes has my money.

>>But I seem to be getting along just fine without a de-interlacer.  
>
>   How well do games and demos run in that VGA-only 17" monitor of yours?

Who ever said that it was VGA only?  My old monitor only handled the 
VGA-like modes, but the new one syncs from 15 to 40kHz.  Games and
demos written by competent programmers run just fine, but most of the
bozo hacker crap breaks because of the 040.

The monitor has a longer-persistance phosphor and allows me to use
a 912x614 Workbench.

>>>   Sure, the A4000 also has an '040, but for my purposes I don't need an
>>>'040.  The resulting system, but upgrading the A3000, is MUCH nicer, with a
>>
>>What?  All you do is complain about performance, yet you don't need an 040?
>
>   I don't remember making an issue of CPU performance for a long time.
>The issues I bring up are usually things like color capabilities, 
>non-interlaced resolutions, the quality of the GUI, availability of CD-ROM
>hardware and software, etc.  None of this is related to CPU performance.

An 040 certainly makes using the higher color modes nicer.  And the 3.0
software is much nicer than the 2.1 that you'd be using on the A3000...

>>>better-looking case and a far more integrated system (more on the motherboard
>>
>>I have to agree with you on the style of the case, but you are forgetting
>>one thing: the 5.25" bay.  You have been saying how much C= needs a CDROM
>>drive for the Amiga, but it would have to be external on the A3000 and it
>>would detract from that case you love so much...
>
>   No big deal.  If the external drive is built small and has an attractive
>case, the fact that it is not internal would not matter as much.

Oh, I forgot that you like the Macintosh.

>>>and less on plug-in cards means more reliability).  It also has some 
>>
>>What do you mean by this?  Would a mythical AGA upgrade board be more
>>reliable than a SCSI-II board?  My guess it that the AGA board would be
>>much more complex...
>
>   But we would be talking about two plug-in cards in the case of the
>A4000 and one in the case of the A3000.

Why is the de-interlacer needed?  

>>>capabilities that the A4000 does not have, namely multiprocessing capability
>>>if an '040 card is added to the CPU slot.  Finally, it is every bit as 
>>>upgradable to '060 cards as the A4000 is.
>>
>>Name a board for the A3000's CPU slot that offers multiprocessing capability.
>
>   I don't know if any of the third-party '040 cards for the A3000
>support this, but one or more of them might.  

You said "if an '040 card is added to the CPU slot.", implying that any
040 card would give you multiprocessing capabilities...

>>For that matter, tell us how the OS is going to use it...
>
>   The OS would not have to.  Software like Emplant could be developed 
>in multiprocessing versions for people with A3000s and '040 cards, if
>the market was big enough.

It isn't big enough now and won't be because the A3000 is no longer in
production.  I'd guess that the total number of A3000's is a couple
hundred thousand, if that many.  

I would rather Commodore have added AGA, an 040, and other improvements
to the A3000 than develop the A4000.  But what's done is done and there
is no use worrying about it.  I hope that Commodore is sincere about
the upgradability of the A4000, but they may drop it just as they did the
A3000 and A1000.  If they do, I'll sell the A4000 and get whatever the
latest and greatest model is.  Somehow I expect that when the A4000 is
knocked off the top of the mountain, you'll be trying to say how it is
much better than the new kid because of some sillly reasons...

>| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>"I suppose if I had two X chromosomes, I'd feel hostile too."
>                              - Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes)
>

Skip Sauls, Amiga Advocate
skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu