From: skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls)
Subject: Re: A4000 case design (was Re: Top 10 reasons why ...)
Organization: University of Mississippi, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 15:46:23 GMT

In article <+sp1s3l@rpi.edu> danaf@rpi.edu writes:
><6gp1fvg@rpi.edu> <1992Nov11.015857.2731@ra.msstate.edu>
>Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 07:02:26 GMT
>Lines: 133
>
>In article <1992Nov11.015857.2731@ra.msstate.edu>, skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls) writes:
>|> My A1000 had the case off most of the time, but somehow I have managed to 
>|> keep the case on the A3000.  Of course, I was constantly tinkering with 
>|> the CSA Midget Racer that I had piggybacked atop a DMI Processor Accelerator
>|> and stuff like that.  Somehow the A3000 just doesn't seem to be quite the
>|> hackers machine that the A1000 was.
>
>Yeah, well, Commodore built it for a "market" this time. They have a MARKET.
>Oooh, look everyone, Commodore has a "mahhket"!

Do they really have a market?  Somehow it has escaped my notice.  :-)

>The A3000 is no fun.   8(

Oh come on now!  I have had lots of fun with my A3000, it is just a more
sanitary sort of fun.  My A1000 and I were "blood brothers" of sorts.  I 
was removing the huge RF shield and sliced my finger wide open, spewing 
blood inside the machine.  Luckily the machine was off and I managed to 
mop most of it up, but a bit of it dried on the motherboard.  Gross maybe,
but it is the kind of thing that one remembers well.  :-)

>|> Okay, that clarifies things a bit.  I've also heard people refer to other
>|> components as the backplane and wasn't sure what you meant exactly.
>
>Really? What else is it used for? My reference for the term comes from a
>photo caption in some magazine... possibly AmigaWorld, a dubious source to be 
>sure...

We have a few older 386 boxes made by NCR that have an ISA "backplane" 
instead of a proper motherboard.  Of course the source of this term is
probably just as dubious.

>(Not Amiga Sentry, tho... I'm positive!  8)   )

You sure seem to miss that magazine alot...  :-)

>|> If there is a seal on the back of the machine, I'll have to void the warranty
>|> as I am sure as hell not going to send it to a dealer to have the Ethernet
>|> board installed.  The A3000 came with information on how to install boards
>|> in it, implying that it was okay, but I've heard that new A2000s have a silly
>|> seal warning you not to break it.  Sheesh, if the machine has slots, why in
>|> the world would they have such a silly policy?  Can you imagine the reaction
>|> if a Clone maker put such a thing on one of their boxes?  Even the expandable
>|> Macs don't have warnings like that.
>
>That is kind of... uhm... well... STUPID! Anyone ever hear of the term "open
>architecture"????

Somehow I don't believe that the engineers made this policy.  Unfortunately,
the policies are often made by marketing dweebs who seem to know very little
about computers.

>|> The articles and pictures (what few there are) show the SIMMs on the left
>|> front of the motherboard. The only thing that might get in the way are any
>|> expansion boards that might be in the machine.  
>
>Well, those come out.
>
>Voids your warranty, tho!   }8)

It had better not.  Commodore is screwed in the head if they think that I'm
going to send the machine to a dealer to have anything installed.  Hell, 
many of the dealers seem to be fools who got their degrees in computer repair
from Sally Struther's "Do you wanna make more money?  Sure, we all do!" TV
training school.  :-)

>|> Oh yeah?  Well my A1000 didn't have any screws and it was gouged on the 
>|> sides where I'd pried it open with a screwdriver so much!  :-)
>
>OOOOh. Yeah? Well, my A2000 case is so warped from coming on and off, it just
>pops right down from the top!   Plbbbbt!  8p

Hmph.  We'll just have to wait and see how bad the A4000 case is after I
finish with it.  :-)

>|> I've received email from another owner who was upset that a second HD drive
>|> would be too tall for the extra bay.
>
>What's the point of a drive bay that doesn't hold any drives?

It might be tall enough for a standard floppy or hard drive.

>Heat sink port? SIMM space for that extra 6 megs of CHIP RAM Dave's going to
>get for us? Hmmm.... the possibilities are.....

How about a PCMCIA (what a stupid acronym) adapter?  If/when all those nifty
ROM card based games come out for the A600/A1200, I'm sure that lots of folks
will be clamoring for an adapter for other machines.

>...nil. This is Commodore we're talking here.

Actuall, they are doing quite well lately.  Remember how bleak the future
seemed just a few months ago?

>|> Hey, does anyone remember how the Atari TT was bashed for the very same
>|> thing?  Oh well, I guess you could get one of those cheezy adapters used
>|> by Clones to put 3.5" drives in 5.25" bays.  As if it isn't ugly enough
>|> already...  :-)
>
>Can't be much worse. I'm assuming, with the new case design and all those 
>bays, that they reverted to the A2000 / PC-clone system of removable panels
>in the faceplate, not the A3000 plate-switch crap?

Actually, the plate on the A3000 fits much better than those on the A2000.
If only they'd have used a standard size ejector button, that design would
be okay.

>|> Well, the A5000 is going to be housed in a rather large box.  It will have
>|> an 040 at first, but they want to be sure to leave plenty of room for the
>|> extra large heat sink that will be necessary when Motorola reveals that the
>|> 68060 generates more heat than originally expected.  :-)
>
>And, of course, room for 20 megs of CHIP RAM..... <hint, hint>

Only 20 megs, come on now, we are talking about a power machine!  We need room
for at least 64M Chip RAM on the A5000 so that the 2560x2048 24bit anims will
have a bit of room.  With only 20M, you'd only be able to have one of those
screens open at one time!

>|> No one else has suggested a resolution, but many have said that JPEG would
>|> be better than GIF for a variety of reasons.
>
>That would be good... also supported widely on UNIX. I'm just hoping for some
>sort of multi-platform standard, not IFF (readable almost nowhere...)

Remember when IFF was going to be a multi-platform standard?

>|> Yeah, ADPro can work wonders, but it can't do much about something that is
>|> not there in the first place.
>
>Suuure it can! Generated a great background gradient for my workbench from 
>no data at all!   8)

That still is not much.  :-)

>|> Yeah, me too!  I can't stand it when people go out of their way to deceive
>|> others into believing something that isn't true.  :-)
>
>Present company excepted, of course...
>
><Put down the hammer, Dan. He didn't mean it! No!!!! STOP!!!!!>

Ungh!  <blackness>

>....EWWWWWWW.
>
>Anyone got a mop?
>
>/////////////////////////[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>(718)             (212)                        (516)             (518)
>=======Amiuser============Frank R. Dana, Jr.============Doc Ami=======     
>--------My opinions rarely reflect those of any sane person,----------
>	   living, dead, or undead... that's gonna CHANGE.

Skip Sauls, Amiga Adovate, Photographer, and Brain Dead Assault Victim
skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu