Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    more info:
    
    optional A2060 composite video/RF modulator board
    
    95-key keyboard, sort of vt200 style, has ibm keypad lettering on
    the front side of the keycaps.
    
    clock/calendar with battery backup
    
    optional hard disk/SCSI controller board, has 2 hard disk interfaces:
    a ST506-compatible interface for connecting up to two PC/XT hard
    drives, and a SCSI interface for either 50-pin SCSI connector or
    25-pin Macintosh Plus-compatible connector.  Can also hook up a
    high speed tape drive.
    
    Expansion slots:
    1. 86-pin Amiga CPU bus slot
    2. video slot for the optional composite/RF board, or other video
       boards
    3. 100-pin Amiga expansion slot
    4. 100-pin Amiga expansion slot
    5. 100-pin Amiga exapnsion slot
    6. 100-pin Amiga expansion slot OR PC/AT or XT compatible slot
    7. 100-pin Amiga expansion slot OR PC/AT or XT compatible slot
    8. XT compatible slot
    9. XT compatible slot
                                           
    The Amiga Bridge card (A2088) is PC/XT compatible, has Phoenix bios,
    512K RAM, MS-D0S 2.11, uses 8088 cpu, has socket for 8087 math
    coprocessor, and floppy disk controller - for one internal floppy
    and up to three daisy-chained external floppies, plugs into slot #6 or #7.
    
    

    more toys:
    
    A1400 MIDI interface supporting MIDI IN, OUT, and THROUGH
    
    A2050 RAM exansion board .5 meg or 1 Meg or 2 Meg.
    it says the system is designed to handle a max of 9 meg.
    
    Now for the bad news?:
    o no more power on the parallel and serial ports, meaning you can
      use ibm cables.  That might be what got some of the hardware
      manufactures upset at the Developers conference.
    
    thats enough for now - buy this issue of COMPUTE! magazine.  It
    has more info and some great marketing quotes from Commodore.
    Its a very pro-Amiga article, almost makes up for their mistake
    about the ST outselling the Amiga 10-to-1.
    
    -dave
    
    

Re .*:

Wow!

I think that the modem not having the power supply lines is pretty minor.
I'll bet the thing that upset the third party hardware developers at the
conference is the 9 expansion slots.  Considering that the big beefy
expansion boxes are a high ticket item, the hardware developers can not
be happy.

Also, the fact that Commodore is getting in to the memory board business
cannot be warming the hearts of the third party suppliers, either.  If
you remember the CES report in this conference mentioned that Commodore
was getting in to the Amiga expansion market because they were not happy
with the prices charged by the third party suppliers.

All of this is good news for A1000 owners.  I predict that expansion
boxes are going to come down in prices.  It looks like the new Amiga
is using the Zorro expansion standard (100 pin connections), so that
there will be even more interest in providing cards to fill expansion
slots in both the A1000 expansion boxes and the A2000 system box.  With
Commodore in the market bringing down prices, memory and such is going
to get cheaper.

The A2002 monitor sounds like a straight 1080 replacement (The 1080 is
switchable between composite and RGB--that's controlled by the switch next
to the volume control.)

The A2080 long persistence monitor for $500 is fantastic.  That sounds
to be about half the price of anyone else's long persistence monitor.
At that price, the A2080 may be a hit with not only Amiga owners but
with owners of other makes and models of computers.

    Good I bought mine without a monitor...

    In an interesting aside, Compute! Publications has requested, through
    Compuserve, that everyone who received the latest issue return it
    at once.  Seems that Compute! was obliged to hold the presses until
    February 14, just like everyone else, to abide by CBM's non-disclosure
    agreement.  They claim that the printers screwed up and released
    several thousand issues by mistake.
    
    Steve Ahlstrom, Amiga sysop on CIS, not only did not cooperate with
    Compute!, but in fact published the specs for all to see.  Now,
    Compute! is threatening Ahlstrom with a legal claim to copyright
    violations in his postings of information obtained through their
    publication.
    
    The general mood of the Amiga-philes on CIS was that they would
    not bend over too far to help Compute! out of a jam.  There still
    seems to be a lot of resentment over their non-retraction of their
    anti-Amiga editorials of last summer.
    
    My opinion?  I wouldn't be surprised if Compute! carefully orchestrated
    a controlled 'leak' of a few issues to help boost sales, which have
    fallen off considerably.

    When does this new machine go on sale?

    re: .5
    
    It is very hard for me to believe that the printer released the
    magazine early.  Printers are much better known for being late
    than being early!  If "Compute!" did not mention the name of their
    printer then I think it even less likely that the printer is at
    fault.
    
    However, there is an interesting legal issue here.  If they claim
    that the copies were released without their permission, then they
    did not "really" publish the magazine (it was stolen from them
    by their printer) and so they have no copyright on the information.
    Thus, they can't make trouble for Steve Ahlstrom, since he isn't
    using their information.
    
    It sounds like "Compute!" is in a jam, and is willing to be very
    unethical to get out.  Don't expect CBM to do them any favors, and
    don't expect them to still be publishing 18 months from now.
    
    If they really had a beef with the printer, they would sue him for
    stealing their magazine, and would splash the name of the printer
    all over Compuserve, as retaliation.
    
    re: .6--According to rumour, the machine will be available in March.
    Don't hold your breath.
        John Sauter

    RE: .0
    
    Dave, from the pictures shown, does the new machine resemble the
    A1000, only taller?  At one time, rumors were flying on the networks
    that A1000 owners could upgrade to the 2000 by buying a new motherboard
    and a new upper plastic case.  The rumored upgrade cost was around
    $800 for case and motherboard.  If this were true, it would be a
    fantastic way to avoid buying Sidecar, external memory boards, external
    hard drives, etc...
    

    RE: .8
    
    From what I've heard from a very reliable source, is that Commodore
    is not allowing upgrades.  I hope that this is not true.  Does anyone
    know if it will have the same custom VLSI chips in it, or not. 
    Also, will it run all the old Amiga Software?  
    
    Derek
    

    RE. 311.3 and others
    
    	If you want to know what made the hardware vendors very mad
    look at the slots in the new AMIGA. The new slots use the same 
    100 pin buss, but the new slots are a different size from the old
    standard. You guessed it, the current zorro boards will not fit
    in the new AMIGA.
    
    		Steve Peters
    

    Re: .9
    
    The 2000 has the exact same custom chips as the 1000, ie, the 512K
    memory limit still applies.  Jay Miner has developed a 'Fat Agnes' chip
    capable of addresssing 2 megs, but the chip set is being held back,
    possibly for a high-end 'Ranger' workstation. 
    
    By the way, at least a few 2000's are out there, since I was speaking
    to an Englishman (UK Jules) on Plink the other nite, and he was
    typing on a 2000 that he had for a magazine review.
    
    Most importantly, the new machines are supposed to be 100% 1000
    compatible.  There is no reason why they should not be, given that
    the OS is 1.2, (in ROM) and the same chipset is being used.

    Does this mean animation capability (i.e. speed, sophistication)
    remains essentially the same as the 1000?
    

    Re: .12
    
    Absolutely!  Other than an additional 512 K of RAM, the architecture
    (of the Amiga section, at least) will be identicle to the A1000.
    This has been a long stated goal of CBM.  All future Amigas, even
    high-end models, with mega-pixel resolution and 68020 processors,
    will be backward compatible with todays Amiga.
    
    This assurance came directly to me from Jeff Porter, hardware engineer

    re: .8 and others
    
    The pictures show a completely new machine, not based on the 1000
    box at all.  Not even a side expansion slot.  But it appears to
    use the same graphics chips - from a software point of view, the
    2000 is same as a 1 Meg Amiga 1000.  The repackaging/redesign is
    just to make the 1000 into something easier to sell into a ibm
    pc market.  I'm real curious how they deal with ibm slots on an
    Amiga bus.  The article stresses the advantage of multitasking
    and then talks about how wonderful coprocessing with a 68000 and
    a 8088 could be.  They make the point that most of the business
    data and programs will come from the pc world - the 2000 can integrate
    that easily with the strengths of the Amiga.
    
    Hopefully, this will finally establish what Amiga slots should be.
    Then maybe the hardware manufacturers or CBM can sell a slot box that
    fits on top of the Amiga 1000 that even has the pc slots.
    
    So an upgrade is possible, but so is a trade-up deal.  No dates
    are mentioned for when it will be available, but it did look like
    a production model - not a prototype.
    
    -dave
    
    
    

    Well, having finally bought the real issue (At the Electronics Boutique
    at teh Pheasant Lane Mall), I now realize:
    
    1) I want an A2000!!!!!
    
    2) I know why Compute! has been doing poorly. Amateurish things
    like having the picture of the internals of the A2000 oriented wrong,
    words like "computerist" (as in "computerists will like this...").
    Sheesh! I'll stick to real magazines from now on.
    
    Actually I think Compute!'s real problem lies in that it tries to
    appeal to everyone and thus appeals to no one. You can't base a
    monthly magazine on the I*M, Apple II, Macintosh, Atari ST, Atari
    XL, Commodore 64/128 and Amiga and expect to have any depth to the
    coverage of any one machine.
    
    Roy

    re: .5
    
      At a developer's convention in 'Frisco last weekend the Director
      of Sales at C-A announced that C-A WOULD be pressing charges against
      Compute! for breaking their non-disclosure agreement.  I don't
      know about you, but I'm on C-A's side!