From: ada@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Sunga Rettaf)
Subject: A3400/A4000 specs...
Organization: Amiga Rumor Distribution Society
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 15:46:23 GMT

Here is a little something that may be interesting to .advocacy readers.
I have no idea who wrote the article, but it seems to be someone from
a hardware company.  The article has been circulated via email to several
persons, yet it has somehow managed to escape being posted on the net.

Is the information real or fake?  If real, is this the type of machine
that people are expecting?

Here it is:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A3400 or A4000.  The sticker on the back of the machine said A4000, the
label like the 2000/3000 keyboard, but stuck on the upper left hand side
of the front of the machine said A3400.  It will be the same color as the
old Commodore VIC-20 (refridgerator white).. guess it'll be called the
'Fridge (NOT!).

* - No motherboard CPU.  The CPU slot is the same as the 3000(T) and has a
different form factor, so current 040 boards won't work it in.  The default
machine is supposed to have a 25MHz 040 (not EC or LC, but full).  Since
there is no onboard CPU slot there is no arbitration circuitry needed, so
accelerators will be cheap.  The 040 board in there was very complete and
clean.

* - IDE, yes IDE, not SCSI.  Cheap cheap cheap.  This pissed off quite
a few developers since they couldn't plug their CDROMs or Flopticals in
to it.  Makes ZorroIII SCSI cards a hot item to produce (we're probably
gonna come out with one based on the 53C710 like the Magnum uses).  They
had a difficult time accepting that the industry standard is IDE, and
that IDE isn't that slow, especially since they are targetting new Amiga
sales, not existing users.

* - 4x AA chip set, since there is 5 SIMM slots, 4 for FAST, 1 for CHIP,
the CHIP uses a Dual CAS SIMM for 2M, otherwise can hold 512 or 1.  The
FAST can hold up to 16M of PAGE mode SIMMs, which yield the 4x speed up,
where as non PAGE, would yield a 2x system.  Machines should be shipping
with 1 or 2M CHIP and 4M FAST.  16M limit is due to using the same BUSTER
RAMSEY combo as in the A3000(T).

* - No Display enhancer.  All machines had a 1960, which let you promote
the displays into Flicker-free.

* - 5 drive bays, 2 floppy, and 3 harddrive, with one of the 3 under the
2 floppy bays.  All are 3 1/2" form factor.  1 avaiable under IDE or
on top of CPU daughtercard.

* - Backplane differs from the 3000 one to move the video slot to the
bottom row, and make it 24 bit, though you can plug a normal 12bit
video card into it.

* - All surface mount components.  SIMMs are user installable.

* - Status of the A3000+ is "unknown", which pissed off a few devs,
    since they were seriously considering DSP software.

* - No network controller (COM20200).

* - This machine caters to an inexpensive 040/AA entry machine, which
is supposed to be highend.  It is also, the BASE box... you can put
any CPU in the slot other than a 68000/010, so look for C= to use this
as a cheap 020/AA(2x)(512kCHIP/4MFAST) system that you can upgrade later.

[cheap ASCII drawing]
Not quite an A3000 form factor on the outside, definetly not on the inside.

                +----------------------+
                |### ===  AMIGA  [ 1.]*|(High Density)
                |----------------[---]-|(empty floppy)
                |                [---] |(empty harddrive)
                +----------------------+
                         {FRONT}

### = A3400 sticker  === = LEDs (power,FDD,HDD)  * = powerswitch
. = floppy button

                +----------------------+
                |                       \
                |                      --
                |  L R                 |
                +-[* *]----------------+
* = Mouse ports          {LEFT} - WHY ON LEFT SIDE???


                +----------------------+
                |@+---+   $$$     =====|
                |%|FAN|   ???     =====|
                | +---+   --- +++.###**|
                +----------------------+
                         {REAR}

% = normal 3 prong socket    @ = (switched) socket  $$$ = A4000 sticker
??? = expansion cover  --- = serial  +++ = parallel  ### = video  ** = audio
. = miniDIN keyboard connector (ala PS/2)  ===== = ZorroIII slot cover.


                +----------------------+
                |    Z: +---+ +-------+|
                |    O: |IDE| |POWER  ||
                |    R: |HD | |SUPPLY ||
                |    R: |   | |       ||
                |    O: +---+ +-------+|
                |       |   |         ^|
                |    3: | 0 ++        ^|
                |     : | 4 S#  +----+^|
                |+++S   | 0 L#C |FDD |^|
                |+++I : |   O#P |HDD |^|
                |+++M : |   T#U |BAYS|^|
                |+++M : +----#  +----+^|
                +---------------------*+
                         {TOP}


Final notes:  It was close to completion.  This is the first time that I've
seen a machine from Commodore so close to being shipped, so expect that it
will be shown and introduced at the WOC in Pasadena.  Also expect it to
_ship_ by Christmas or early '93 if not sooner.  This will be a first that
C= can actually meet an announcement with machines.  Also note that KS39
AmigaOS Release 3 is in final test.  They are giving us a couple of more
weeks to finish beta testing.  The AA chipset is snappy, adequate for an
entry level machine, and 8 bit planes was not even as slow as 4 bit planes
are now, which is gonna make it shine when the reviews come out.

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Sunga Rettaf









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