From: raist@rmece02.upr.clu.edu (Ricardo Hernandez | 802-36-4453)
Subject: Re: New Amigas(not 4000)?
Organization: UPR-Mayaguez--ASEL Lab
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 19:49:15 GMT

In article <1992Oct15.163858.26350@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>, abs0@coos.dartmouth.edu (Kelvin Leung) writes:
|> 2ftqkiln@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
|> 
|> >OK, we've all heard the rumors(or are the facts) that Commodore will
|> >be introducing new machines before Christmas and we've also heard 
|> >that the 4000 was a rush job. So what are the speculations on the 
|> >new machines? I mean this IS advocacy.;)  Are they going to basically
|> 
|> I disagree with you that A4000 is a rush job.  I think Commodore has
|> carefully designed the Amiga 4000 and has a sense of what market it is
|> targeting toward.  Furthermore, the A4000 basically (IMHO) answered a lot
|> of our complaints.  
|> 

   I disagree.  I consider the A4000 a rush job although it has quality
in it.  It's like -> "get out what we have done so far, and add the other
things later."  But no doubt, it has quality.

|> One may complains about the lack of DSP 16bit sound, SCSI adaptor and
|> de-interlacer.  Yet, has any of those complaining people stop and think
|> about it?? Commodore needs to sell a lot of these babies (hopefully).  
|> Therefore, it has to target toward general audience.  
|> 1) does everyone who buy an A4000 need 16bit DSP sound?? I heard some
|>    video-production/multimedia folks complained they were disappointed--
|>    but that's what that 16bit professional sound card made by 3rd party
|>    is for... keep in mind that a PC clone and Mac generally don't have
|>    16bit DSP sound.  It may be hard to justify spending $200-300 more
|>    on A4000 and get 16bit DSP sound which isn't really supported by 
|>    the market.
  
    I disagree.  The Amiga is the Amiga (or was the Amiga) for its 
outstanding characteristics vs the competition where all general areas
of a computer is concerned: sound, graphics, coprocessors, dma channels,
etc.  Also, the lack of 16-bit/DSP based sound cards for the PC will 
change soon.  I have a friend of mine who has a soundblaster compatible
card with 16-bit quality sound, 8 voices running for almost the same price
of the soundblaster pro.

|> 
|> 2) SCSI-adaptor: I agree it would be nice... but someone mentioned 
|>    Commodore did a survey (??) and realised that a lot of people didn't
|>    really need to have more than 1 harddisk.  Though that might not 
|>    be true, but if Commodore really did the survey...  besides, a lot
|>    of people probably have IBM (IDE) harddisks lying around somewhere..
|>    say from their ex-AT clones.  It might be nice for them to be able
|>    to use those drives on their Amiga.

   I have mixed feelings about this.  Perhaps this is true.

|> 
|> 3) de-interlacer:  though some people keep complaining that the A4000
|>    doesn't have a cure-all de-interlacer.  Nonetheless, have they
|>    even bother to think how much it would cost for a separate 
|>    de-interlacing circuit?? looking at the amount of data it has
|>    to buffer, it would cost much more than an A2000 de-interlacer.
|>    An A2000 deinterlacer is about $200.  Think about how much an
|>    A4000 one would cost.
  
   My opninion about this is simply that interlacing is one of those
"dreaded amiga things" as other people (mostly PC/Mac guys put it).
It would have been nice to have a true de-interlacer, but what the heck.
I can live with non-interlaced 640x400.

|> 
|> Now, if you add $200 for sound, $100 for SCSI and $300 for a de-interlacer,
|> how much would the A4000 become?  $4000 suggested retail price?? or 
|> $3400 street price?? now... that is a lot more expensive than a
|> 486 clone... I think Commodore is doing a right thing now:
|> 
|> think about it, we can get an A4000 for $2800 today, and how much
|> would a similarly configured 486 clone cost?? ~$2500.  Now, that's
|> justifiable.  I would imagine a lot of people* wouldn't mind spending
|> an extra $300 for an Amiga instead of a 486 clone.
|> 
|> *the phrase "a lot of people" is refering to Amiga fans, ex-Amiga fans,
|>  potential Amiga fans, but not necessarily die-hard PC fans.
|> 
|> Just my $.02 worth,
|> Kelvin
|> e-mail: abs0@coos.dartmouth.edu

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------
          // 
  Raist \X/  Amiga 500, 38Mhz Special MegaMidget Racer
             Avid user of AmigaVision 
             Sending mail from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
---------
           "If the PC or Mac continues to be the standard,
            the SkyNet will never be built." - my words