From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett)
Subject: Re: Re: A4000/Alice
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 02:51:38 GMT

In article <jbono.04je@tension.UUCP> jbono@tension.UUCP (John Bono) writes:
>In article <1992Sep28.142725.26472@news.iastate.edu>, barrett@iastate.edu (Marc
>N Barrett) writes:
>>In article <jbono.04bq@tension.UUCP> jbono@tension.UUCP (John Bono) writes:
>>>In article <1992Sep25.201919.15792@microsoft.com>, iank@microsoft.com (Ian
>>>Kennedy) writes:
>>>>Of course others have said all of the custom chips in the AGA machines
>>>>are surface mounted. In that case there will be no upgrades at all.
>>>>
>>>All the chips in the A4000 are surface mount.  However, the entire board with
>>>the graphics chips on it is designed to be replaceable.  This means that when
>>>the fast chipset comes out, you will yank the board with AGA on it, and swap
>it
>>
>>>for a board with AGAGA on it, and keep your '040 and zorro III boards.
>>
>>   Bullshit.  The "board with the graphics chips on it" is the motherboard, 
>>and Commodore in their entire history has never offered motherboard upgrades
>>for older Amigas.  

>Bullshit yourself.  If they didn't design it to be upgradeable, *Why* did they
>put the cpu on a separate board, and the board for the zorro slots separate
>from the board with the graphics chips on it?

   Commodore put the CPU on a seperate board as a ploy to be able to design
three systems for the price of one.  Remember than R&D funding is a commodity
in VERY short supply at Commodore.  The slots are on a daughterboard to
save space on the motherboard.  

>  If cost was a consideration, it
>would have been far cheaper to integrate the '040 into the motherboard with the
>ram and leave a connector for a faster cpu on the board.

   It would have made the designing of the systems with an '030 or an '020
more expensive, though.

>  Secondly, the layout
>of the 4000 is such that the board with the graphics chips is removeable. 

   The "board with the graphics chips" in the A4000 is every bit as
removeable in the A4000 as it is in the A3000.  but do you see any AGA 
chipset upgrades being made available for A3000 systems?

>Thirdly, the only reason why CBM has not offered motherboard upgrades in the
>past is that very little extra functionality is gained.  The difference between
>a 1000 and a 500 is very small.  Like wise with the 2000.  You can in effect
>upgrade a 2000 to a 3000 with an A2630.  Where is the improvement?  

   Here is a list of features that an A3000 has that an A2000 with the A2630
does not have:

   SCSI interface
   Display Enhancer 
   32-bit chip RAM
   2M of chip RAM
   Easy expandability to 16M of 32-bit RAM

   So, what improvements would be gained with an A3000 motherboard designed
to fit in an A2000 case?  Read the above list again.

   I also think that a lot of A1000 owners would ahve been more satisfied
with a motherboard upgrade for their machines (an A500 motherboard designed
to fit the A1000 case, basically) than with any of the "upgrade" options
created by Commodore's marketing department.

>John

---
| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
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