From: nwickham@nyx.cs.du.edu (Neal Wickham)
Subject: Re: Amiga info needed!
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Reply-To: nwickham@nyx.UUCP (Neal Wickham)
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Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 22:34:10 GMT

In article <1993Jan20.034412.6302@ncsu.edu> jmcocker@eos.ncsu.edu (Mitch) writes:

>Amiga?  I am primarily interested in the following info
>about the A1000, A2000, and the newer (?) A4000:


Forget the A500, A600, A1000, A2000, A3000, you're interested in the new 
AGA machines which so far include the A1200 or A4000.  The A1200 is a very
inexpensive entry level machine as where the A4000 is a professional machine. 


>CPU type, internal bus structure and size, CPU and bus
>speeds, graphics capabilities (overview), RAM sizes
>supported, and hard disk sizes supported.


They use the Zorro III bus which is 32-bit and one of the fastest in the
industry.  The 1200 has the Motorola EC020 which is on the level of a 25Mhz
386DX and the 4000 has an 040 which is faster, I believe, than the fastest
of the 486s.  But what makes Amiga an Amiga is the custom chip-set which  
is mostly dedicated to gfx, especially dynamic gfx or motion, and which
acts as co-processors to handle tasks done by the CPU in other systems.  The
Amiga's custom chip-set is what sets it apart in graphical power and power
in general since the CPU can be dedicated to other functions.

What Amiga gfx are very good at are moving gfx around.  This is what makes it
such a great games machine and what gave it the reputation of being a games
only machine.   Amiga has been able to animate full screen in 4096 colors
(and 2.5 million with DCTV) at 20+ fps for some time.  But the AGA machines
can animate in psudo 24-bit "HAM8" at 30 fps (or even 60?) full screen 640 X
400 or in "overscan" 660 X 442 (overscan is the full screen w/o borders so
that it looks like a TV screen) and possibly in 800 X 600??? 


The 1200 is expandable to 10 MB and the 4000 to ??? I think 32 or even 64
MB just on the motherboard.  The 1200 ships with up to a 130 MB hard drive
and the 4000 up to ???.  There is a fast SCSI II card for the 4000 so any
SCSI drive will work. 


>Also, I am
>getting the impression from reading the Amiga games
>group that much of available Amiga software is non-HD
>installable.  Why is this?  Piracy concerns? It is most
>perplexing.


It is piracy concerns and that many of the Amigas out there are in Europe
where computer hardware is less affordable than here in the US.  Though,
now most all Amigas have hard drives, this wasn't the case a year or two
ago.  I think tradition also plays a part.  Many do not want to have games
taking up hard drive space and Amiga programs simply do not require the
memory of programs on other systems so that games on floppies are very 
useable.  

For me... I have several games I would just as soon keep on floppy even
though I have a 170 meg drive.  I need the hard drive space for my Mac 
emulator since Mac software is a storage hog, you know.  :)




                                      NCW

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