X-Envelope-to: I-AMIGA@UBVM.BITNET
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%"I-AMIGA@UBVM.BITNET"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.i-amiga
Date:         Sun, 11 Oct 1992 15:29:11 -0600
From:         "(METAL MASTER! VIE Creator,
              Ancient and prolonged procrastinator)"
              <STU521530304@WSC.COLORADO.EDU>
Subject:      Some Information I compiled and sent to misinformed people.

INFORMATION ON Commodore Amiga Series computers...
Features... Development Dates.... Prices

Sound....   Graphics....   Newest Model....

Multi-tasking info...     Comparisons.... of multitasking, speed, and
                                          prices

Compatability....(IBM & MAC compatibility)

Software Developers....

Games....

GUI....                             Multimedia....

Gold Warantee....                   Public Domain Programming Compilers....



-MODELS AND THEIR FEATURES:


Amiga 500 -  (Developed in 85' or 86')
          BASE MACHINE   = 7.65MHz  1 3 1/2" DRIVE   1/2 MEG of Memory
                           Mouse, RCA stereo Jacks. One expansion port,
                           One Serial Port, One Paralell port.
          SUGGESTED EXTRAS = bring up to 1 MEG of memory, Get a Hard Drive,
                             and the monitor is not included so you need to
                             get an RGB monitor... I suggest the 1084s by
                             Commodore, it has stereo speakers built in,
                             and is really nice. I believe they also give
                             an adapter with the A500 to hook it to a
                             Television set.

Amiga 2000 - (Developed in 85' or 86')
          BASE MACHINE = 7.65MHz   1 3 1/2" Drive   1 MEG of Memory
                         Mouse, RCA stereo Jacks, One Serial Port,
                         One Parallel port, One video Port, and a Drive
                         Port. Has bays available for addition of another
                         3 1/2" drive, and a 5 1/4"(Never used) or a
                         Hard Drive. Has 8 to 9 card slots within the case,
                         so it has plenty of expansion room.
          SUGGESTED EXTRAS = an addition 3 1/2" Drive. A 1084s Monitor,
                             Hard Drive. May want to expand memory also.


Amiga 3000 - (Developed in 90')
          BASE MACHINE = 16MHz     1 3 1/2" Drive    3 MEGS of Memory
                         Mouse, Rca Stereo Jacks, Same ports as a 2000.
                         Several Zorro III expansion bays, and it's casing
                         is smaller than that of the 2000. It uses an
                         Enhanced Chip Set which gives a few more graphics
                         modes.
          SUGGESTED EXTRAS = get a 25MHz machine or higher, you can specify
                         this upon purchase usually. I think they may come
                         with Hard Drives, but if not you will definately
                         want one. Get a Multisync monitor.

Amiga 600 - (Developed in 92')
          BASE MACHINE - Is even smaller than the Amiga 500. Most of
                         us long time Amiga users think this was designed
                         with the game user in mind.
                         it is 16 or 25MHz... and uses the Enhanced Chip
                         Set. It comes with one 3 1/2" drive, and a couple
                         MEGs of memory. It comes with a hard drive.
                         It is not very expandable.
          SUGGESTED EXTRAS - Multisync monitor. I suggest getting a more
                         expandable model of Amiga.

Amiga 4000 - (Developed in 92'  Just announced in September)
          BASE MACHINE - This is the present Dream machine of the Amiga
                         family. It comes with at least a 120MB Hard Drive,
                         Mouse, 3 1/2" drive. It is a little bigger than
                         an A3000 but not as big as the A2000. It uses the
                         New Advanced Graphics Architecture chip set which
                         offers a dozen or so screen resolutions... Each
                         resolution can use the max colors 256,000 from
                         a pallete of 16.7 million. So, higher resolutions
                         are not restricted in colors. It is a total 32 bit
                         architecture machine. It has a card slot to plug
                         in the CPU, so as faster CPUs become available,
                         you simply replace your old one. Presently they
                         come with the 68040 25MHz Motorolla processor,
                         which is faster than the processor used in an
                         IBM 486. Soon the 68060 is said to be released.
                         I believe that it comes with 2 MEGS Chip Ram(i.e.
                         video ram), and 4 megs of FastRAM.
           SUGGESTED EXTRAS - Multisync monitor.


Amiga 1000 - (Developed in 85'  The first amiga)
            It is similar to the 500 and 2000 series, but they made improvements
            by the 500 and 2000 so, it is better just to get a 500.


-PRICES:

A1000      - If you can find one anymore   $250 - $500, because owner wants
             to upgrade.
A500       - $299 for base   $679 with monitor and some software, buy them
             used and you will get more for even less than this.
A600       - $300 (approx) for base prices are similar to A500. You probably
             won't find any used ones on the market yet.
A2000      - $1,300 for a base package with monitor etc. You can probably find
             some INCREDIBLE USED deals... I saw a couple that made my mouth
             water.
A3000      - $2000 + for base package...  There are some really good used deals
             out there.
A4000      - $3600 +                      Hardly anyone has any of these so
             far, because they are so new.


-BUILT IN:

The following comes with every Amiga
Built in 4 channel 8-bit STEREO sound....
Built in Graphics CoProcessor.
Built in Windows that works in 1/2 MEG of ram.
Built in Intuition Coprocessor
Built in Sound Coprocessor.

Every Amiga has at least the following graphics capabilities.
320 x 200        at 4096 Colors(in 85' this shocked the computer world)\
640 x 200        at 16 colors
320 x 400        at 16 colors
640 x 400        at 4 colors

Enhanced Chip Set
Adds several new graphics modes and allows more colors in the higher resolutions

Advanced Graphic Architecture Chipset(only available in the A4000)
many new graphics modes(and the ability to program in more in the future)
256,000 colors out of a possible 16.7 million on any resolution!!!
new productivity high resolution 1280 x 640(i think this is right, I know the
1280 is right) picture this resolution with 256,000 colors!!

-GRAPHICS DISPLAY SPEED:

Amiga is still the most powerful graphics machine on the PC market due
to the Graphics Coprocessor. Coprocessors speed up the machine because
they handle instructions that the CPU would normally have to deal with and
this frees up processor time. The older Amiga Graphics Coprocessors could
transfer 256K of graphic information per second. (SEGA Genesis games are
usually programmed on an Amiga). The A3000, A600, and A4000 should be
able to do over 200,000 filled polygons per second.


-MULTI-TASKING:
Amigas use preemptive multi-tasking, which according to experts on multi-
tasking is the prefered method of multi-tasking. Macintosh uses what is
called Cooperative multi-tasking. IBMs attempts at multi-tasking though
they have been miserable have been in the Cooperative branch also.
Both Macintosh and Amiga use the same processors, so neither party can
legitametly say one machine is faster than the other. Though it has been
proven that adding a Floating Point Math Coprocessor to a machine will
speed up the computers mathematics related work, because the Coprocessor
takes over that work for the CPU, so does it not make sense that an Amiga
with all it's extra Coprocessors would run quicker than a Macintosh running
on an Equivalent CPU? Work it out logically rather than defensively, and
you will see the truth.  Now about IBM in relation to Macintosh and Amiga.


-BRIEF COMPARISON of MOTOROLLA PROCESSORS VS. INTEL(More Info Available
                                                   on request.)

MAC and Amiga both used Motorolla Processors
IBM uses Intel processors

a 68000 processor(the oldest and slowest motorolla) would run twice as fast
as an equivalent processor in a 386'.
 Then the 486' came out and it is directly comperable in speed with the
68030... which means it is incredibly fast(i.e. 68030/50MHz = Intel 486/50MHz)
Well, a 68040 at 25MHz is faster than a 68030/50MHz by quite some amount.
Motorolla is nearing completion of the 68060, this means more speed.

-COMPARING PRICES:

Macintosh Quadra900(Top of the line)           - $7,000 --> 10,000 +
68040/25MHz processor
for $7,000 you get no hard drive!!

Amiga 4000(Top of the line)                    - $3,650 --> $5,000
68040/25MHz processor
for $3,650   you are give Gold Warantee
             and at least a 120MB HD.



-COMPATABILITY:

At the moment...
IBM 386 board available for A3000 and lower models..
AMAX II+ emulator will emulate Mac Classics faster than the origional(
         requires MAC 128K ROMS)
EMPLANT(Still in Vaporware state, there are pictures of it, but I have
        not been able to talk to anyone who has one) This board is presently
        said to be able to emulate MAC IIci and IIsi computers.. the
        EMPLANT itself is new technology though and it emulates by
        dumping the ROM image into a file and running from a RAM Drive.
        It is said to run faster than the machine it emulates. The
        engineers said they had plans to emulate 486' and Quadra
        machines in the future. I will type up the information I have for
        anyone that wants it, and I will keep you apprised of new info
        as I get it.

What is so nice about this, is that the AMIGA could run Macintosh, IBM,
and Amiga programs simultaneously and concurrently....!!! THREE
COMPUTERS IN ONE.( This has already been done using 286 Board and AMAX
  II+)

Prices.
386 board        -  $300 -> $400
AMAX II+         -  $250 -> $450
EMPLANT          -  $300 -> $600

I can nail down any of these prices if you are interested, I just
recently became inspired to write this document so I do not have the
prices with me, but I remember what range they fell in.


Software Developers - It is obvious in the U.S. that Amiga Software is
  not nearly as numerous as that of IBM and Macintosh. What is not
  obvious is that an Amiga is a programmers dream. It has been called
  the "Hacker's Computer" There is a large underground of amiga
  Shareware Developers. The shareware is of very high quality. For
  example the Terminal Emulator I use to connect to the VAX emulates
  VT220 perfectly. There is another Terminal Emulator I have that will
  enable you to use VAX BASED GRAPHICS on your Amiga(Western does not
  have the VAX Based Graphics). They are both Shareware. The MUSIC
  Program I use is called MED. It is used by professional software
  developers to compose their music. It is better by far then any
  IBM based music tracker I have seen. I have yet to see a MAC music
  tracker writer, so I can't give any comparisons in that market. What
  is amazing about this incredible program is that it is ShareWare!!
  I have talked with developers of all kinds of Software... What you
  do on your IBM, we can get some program that will do it... that
  program will cost us nothing. Macintosh has a large shareware group
  also. I have yet to have been blown away by any of it like I was for
  MED, but then our local MAC enthusiasts have not shown me hardly any
  of the programs they have pulled over.
  FRED FISH is a major figure in the amiga shareware movement... he
  compiles shareware into disks and makes them available to everyone.
  So far there are around 800 disks full of material... that is
  THOUSANDS of free programs that are easy to locate, and that does not
  even include the stuff that is not on his disks.

-GAMES:

        The Amiga has often been sneered at and called a game machine.
        Well, anyone who has actually attempted to program a game knows
        that programming a game is actually a tricky task. Games usually
        push your computer to the limit and tap any resource they can
        figure out how to implement. So, in calling a machine a game
        machine you are actually complimenting the machine. Too bad the
        Ignorant people around the person who sneers do not realize this.

        Amiga does have awesome games.

-GUI:

        I have seen IBM enthusiast sneer and say "Awe, that's just a
        GUI, it is for the people who are too wimpy to use the shell."

        Sorry, Macintosh is more of a users machine. Amiga has the
        ability to do this also, but most of the programmers are very
        fluent with shells. That is where we do our work... just click
        on the System drawer in any Workbench icon and you will see a
        neat old ICON called Shell... "WOW! Imagine that!" I think these
        people should really be wondering what it is they are missing,
        since we have the world of IBM and MAC pretty much shoved into
        one machine.


-MULTIMEDIA:

        Amiga computers were being used for multi-media applications
        before the term multimedia was ever named. I mean what happens
        when in 1985 a machine comes out with 4 channel stereo sound,
        Graphics Coprocessor, and 4096 colors? This was back before
        Macintosh had color computers, IBM only had 256 colors at the
        time and came equipped with there little BEEP sound, that is
        still the standard.


        Object/Icon based language called AmigaVision with the expressed
        Purpose of creating Multi-media Applications... I believe this
        appeared in 89' because they were giving it out for free in 90'
        and 91' the new version comes free with the A4000. Actually
        AmigaVision comes with purchase of just about any Amiga computer.

-GOLD WARANTEE:

        If you purchase an Amiga 4000 or 3000 from an authorized Dealer
        you get what is called the Gold Warantee. They will repair your
        computer or ship you a new one immediately based on what you
        tell them over the phone. I have read letters on Amiga Users on
        Amiga Mail Lists over internet who have had Commodore Field
        Repair personel fly into their remote location and fix their
        computer. Often, though they just Fed-X you a new one.


-PUBLIC DOMAIN PROGRAMMING COMPILERS:
DICE C compiler        GNU C -
Sozoban C              GNU C++
PCQ Pascal             FORTH
Draco                  MODULA
and many many more....(what do you do with FREE compilers?)



Think about it....

                Deva Winblood(Pronounce Dayva Wineblood)
                STU521530304@WSC.COLORADO.EDU
                VIE_MANAGER@WSC.COLORADO.EDU
                DWINBLOO@HEARTLAND.BRADLEY.EDU
                DEVAWD@IDS.NET
                BG556@CLEVELAND.FREENET.EDU
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU