From: bull@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Falcon has 16 bit bus (was Re: the falcon's super.. NEW)
Date: 21 Nov 92 18:55:51 +1100
Organization: Computer Centre, Monash University, Australia


From: runehy@dhhalden.no (RUNE HYLDMO)

>Many of you Amiga freaks are telling the Falconers things like these...
>I don t need a DSP anyway, but i anyone does I can just plug in an add-on
>board!!!

        Can you upgrade the DSP?

>I don t need a FPU, but if anyone does, one can just plug one in..

        Or put it on the (A1200) motherboard. The FPU lines are on it.

>I don t need LAN, but if someone  does they can just plug a card on in..

        For whatever LAN is appropriate

>I don t need SCSI II, but if someone does, they can just plug a card..

        Your point.

>I don t need a HD-floppy, but if someone does they can just get one..
>(swap, swap, swap, swap, swap, swap, swap if you haven t got a harddrive)

        And another to you.

>And I guess all these things are for free or are they????
>
>They will sure have a hard time changing all those extra add-on cards, maybe
>they should hire a person to do it for them, so they have some time left to
>use their machine. At least they seem to have enough money to hire someone
>since they can afford all those add-on boards!!!

        Why would each device need a seperate card? SCSI-2 controllers come
in a single chip, DSP's aren't very big and ram is getting more compact all
the time. Put the DSP, SCSI-2 and 32 bit ram on an A1200 expansion bay card,
the FPU on the motherboard and the LAN interface in the industry standard
PCMIA slot. What do I need to swap now?

        Oh, Rune, before you get too carried away, read the article I
found in comp.sys.atari.tech. You may not be so thrilled with the Falcon
after you do.

>From: jornmoe@fredrik.atari.no (Joern Moe)
>Organization: Atari Corp. Scand. AB (Norway)
>
>Ok, sorry about this guys, but here's the final facts:
>
>
>  Date: 17 Nov 92 07:02:23 EST
>  From: Wilfred Kilwinger <72347.2124@CompuServe.COM>
>  Subject: Want to get something cleared up....
>  To: >INTERNET:jornmoe@fredrik.atari.no
>
>  >There's a lot of confusion going on at comp.sys.atari.st.tech about the
>  >Falcon bus: Does it have 16 or 32 bit databus (CPU <-> memory)?
>
>  This is what John Townsend (Atari Corp) said on GEnie:
>  --------------------------------
>  Atari-ST RoundTable
>  Category 14,  Topic 20
>  Message 73        Mon Nov 16, 1992
>  TOWNS [John@Atari]           at 15:01 EDT
>
>  Once and for all..
>
>
>  The Falcon030 has a 24bit Address Bus and a 16bit Data Bus. The
>  expansion port on the machine represents that bus.
>
>
>  The Falcon030 can have a minimum of 1 meg of RAM and a maximum of
>  14 megs of RAM. Possible RAM configurations are 1meg, 4meg, or 16
>  megs of RAM.
>
>
>  -- John Townsend, Atari Corp.
>  ------------------------------
>  Note that the Apple LC and the Classic II use the same trick and some
>  chips do have full 32bit access like the video logic.
>
>*****************
>
>Now, that should settle the discussion on wheter it has 16 or 32 bit bus, but
>it will certainly not settle the frustration among some of you Atarians now:-/
>But remember: with its low price, the Falcon 030 is quite uniq anyway!!
>
>And while we are at it with facts from reliable sources:
>
>  >There just appeared a roumor about the reason for the delay of Falcon. The
>  >roumor states that an Atari official (in europe som place) said that the
>  >reason for delay was that new video-modes were added (redesigning of video-
>  >hardware) to see to that the Falcon had better spesifications than Amiga
>  >1200!
>  >Do you have anny coments on this roumor (that I may quote to internet)?
>
>  Yes, 100% nonsens.

        I shall leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions.


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Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy