From: skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: AAchip for 3000(was Re: Offic. new C= Announcements!)
Date: 23 Aug 92 22:53:37 GMT
Organization: University of Mississippi, Dept. of Computer Science

In article <2A970854.22485@ics.uci.edu> rang@ics.uci.edu (Jyan-ken) writes:
>In article <Steven_Hurdle.009b@amusers.UUCP> Steven_Hurdle@amusers.UUCP (Steven Hurdle) writes:
>>OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM COMMODORE!!!
>>
>>Commodore Canada has officially announced a number of products.
>>
>>- Amiga 4000 an official product!!!  To be shown to the public at WOC
>>Pasadena on September 12!  It ***WILL*** have the AA ChipSet!  Finally the
>>speculation is about to end!!
>
>Great....NOW will I have to "upgrade" from a 3000 to get the splendor of
>the 4000 or beyond?

As crazy as it may sound, I certainly hope so.  I too am an A3000 owner and
love the machine dearly, but I don't believe that the AA chipset will be
just a plug in replacement.  Several C= engineers have said that the ECS
chipset is about as far as the current designs allow and that advanced chips
would not fit.  Some have talked of a Zorro III board with the AA chipset
on it and maybe that is possible, we'll know soon.

C= has been pretty good in the past about offering PowerUp programs and we
may get lucky again.  I'd part with my A3000 this second if there was an
offer such as A3000 + $1000 = A4000.  :-)

>>- AA ChipSet (as said above) officially announced.
>
>>before Christmas.  These announcements were made at a local show called the
>>Multimedia Event (hosted by Commodore and a local dealer).  I had the scoop
>>on all of them a few days before the show, though I can't reveal my
>>source.  And I have the scoop on one other (only slightly less official).
>>AmigaVision 3.0 Professional!  As far as I can discern, this was not an
>>error on my source's part though I'm trying to validate that he didn't mean
>>to say 2.0.  Possibly this means there will be an AmigaVision 2.0
>>'consumer' release.
>>Your guess is as good as mine.
>
>AmigaVision should updated to work with the new AA chipset..

I'd be happy just to have an AA IFF viewer to show the thing off to all 
the IBM and Mac weenies.  :-)

>>In case anyone's wondering about me since I've never posted to Usenet
>>before (the system that I've been reading Usenet off of
>>just got write access so I haven't been able to before now), I write the
>>rumour column for the local club newsletter (AmUsers) and people have
>>been sending me anything that they come across for inclusion.  Anything
>>locally known that is "spreadable" I hear about before most others.  I have
>>only sparce contacts outside of my locale, but should any kind souls out
>>there have info that they ever might want to send to me please write me at:
>
>Wht questions me is whether the 3000 will be able to get an AA chipset in
>there? Or will Amiga abandon the 3000 after trying to push so many to buy
>one?  I hope Commodore gets hounded with this question (hint, hint) and
>the question is applicable to 2000/500/1000 users too..(Sorry, but
>I forgot to make the request a little general instead of specific to my
>questions..)...

I doubt that they will abandon the A3000 entirely, but I wish they'd 
introdue the A4000 in the A3000 price range and move the A3000 down
to the A2000 range.  Of course, there may be machines other than the
A4000 (A3400, A1000jr (ugh, what a stupid name!), A800, etc.) which
fill the gaping holes in the product line.

>Also if the AA chipset WILL be available for other Amigas, how much?
>(NOW is the time to get Commodore's attention...)

Asking for the AA chipset to be available for other Amigas is probably
a bit much.  Look at the Mac line and the various clones and see how
often they offer to just swap chips and get new features.  No one likes
to spend money, but considering the vast improvements that the AA chipset
will make to the Amiga line, you should expect to pay.  

I'm more worried that C= will price the new machines using the same idiotic
mentality which resulted in the $6000 A3000T-040.  If C= were selling lots
of high-end Amigas at such ridiculous prices they might have some sort of
justification for this madness, but I doubt that they are.

Come on C=, redeem yourself by not screwing this one up!
            
  Skip Sauls
  skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu