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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:	AMIGA NOTES
Notice:	Join us in the NEW conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:	HYDRA::MOORE

Created:	Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:	Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5378
Total number of notes:	38326

407.0. "Amiga 1000 to 2000 Upgrade" by TLE::RMEYERS (Randy Meyers) Wed Mar 25 1987 23:58

I just got back from the Boston Computer Society general meeting where
the Amiga 2000 was demonstrated.  Commodore was there in force:  President
of Commodore Tom Rattigan, software wizards RJ Michal and Dale Luck, 
engineering reps from Germany and Pennsylvania, and a handful of others.

There were about three or four Amiga 2000 sitting out for people to play
with.  The machines were so mobbed I couldn't get close enough to count
them.  There were no Amiga 500s, however.

Commodore "announced" two new pieces of information:

First, a working prototype of the AT bridge card was shown.  Literally,
they held up this card and said it was the AT card.  I do not know if
they plugged it in a machine so people could see it running.  

Second, an Amiga 1000 to Amiga 2000 upgrade was mentioned.

An Amiga 1000 owner from the audience asked what was Commodore was
going to do for him.  He worried that the Amiga 1000 was an orphan
and that no one would write software for it as opposed to the Amiga
500 and Amiga 2000.  (Sigh, the fellow had wax in his ears, or between
them: the Amiga 1000 is completely software compatible with the 500 and
2000.  The only thing to worry about is Amiga 1000 hardware upgrades.)

Anyway, the Commodore president gave a rather bland answer, but one
of the random Commodore representatives chimed in with "And you can
take advantage of the trade up policy to trade your Amiga 1000 in on
an Amiga 2000."  After the presentation was over, while people were
milling around playing with the machines and talking to the luminaries
at the meeting, I asked the rep who mentioned the trade up policy
for more details.  She said that details were not finial, but Commodore
was thinking of something like you give them a Amiga 1000 and $1000
and they give you a new Amiga 2000.

I have no idea if the Commodore representative was authorized to
mention the trade up policy: it could be they shot her after the
show.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
407.1		AUTHOR::MACDONALD	WA1OMM Listening 224.64	`Thu Mar 26 1987 09:10`	1
	So what happened to Sidecar?
407.2	Underwhelming presentation.	TALLIS::HERDEG	Mark Herdeg, LTN1-2/B17 226-6520	`Thu Mar 26 1987 12:53`	24
	I thought the whole presentation was bland. The speeches were much too long and made by poor speakers. The presentations were too short and disorganized. They didn't demonstrate Amiga software at all, just MSDOS and 123. Why no slick sound and graphics, the forte of the machine? Also, it was very unprofessional the way that woman kept shouting things from the audience. Maybe they're trying to really emphasize the PC features to win business users, but they won't unless they really push the native Amiga features and software. After all, it won't let you multitask two MSDOS programs. I was underwhelmed, and so was most of the audience from the response. It's too bad. I'm not an Amiga owner (I own a Mac), but I think it has a lot of great features. They should have been showing the Amiga doing things that make it shine and also maybe comparing it explicitly to the Mac and ST (against both of which they can compete favorably, particularly on price now). They did neither. If you want to see a presentation to put last night's to shame, go to the Mac introduction Friday night. Apple knows how to exploit their strengths and wow an audience. With the new Amiga products, Commodore could easily do the same, but they didn't. It's too bad. -Mark Herdeg
407.3	Yes, it was slow	TLE::RMEYERS	Randy Meyers	`Thu Mar 26 1987 15:21`	11
	Re: .2 I think that the reason that they didn't concentrate on Amiga only features was that they are old news. The new machines are completely compatible with the Amiga 1000, so if they wanted to concentrate on new features, they are forced to dwell upon MS/DOS running in a window. I agree that the presentation was a bit ho-hum. I think they could have done better by throwing in a lot more Amiga specific stuff; who cares if it is old news. A couple of the animated scenes from "Defender of the Crown" would have been more entertaining and sold a few more machines.
407.4	Sidecar is coming	TLE::RMEYERS	Randy Meyers	`Thu Mar 26 1987 15:26`	12
	Re: .1 >So what happened to Sidecar? Someone asked about the Sidecar. The Commodore president gave an availability figure (60 days?), and said that they had been slow in getting the sidecar to the US, but they had been selling them in Europe for three or four months now. I cannot remember what the price was of the sidecar: I think it may have been $700. So, expect the Sidecar in two or three months.
407.5	A2000 upgrade	HPSCAD::VERMA		`Mon Oct 05 1987 10:51`	225
	May be useful for those considering A1000 to A2000 upgrade. ---------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Path: decwrl!hplabs!sri-unix!rutgers!clyde!wayback!atux01!perry Subject: Hardware Upgrade Conusion? Posted: 19 Sep 87 17:16:13 GMT Organization: erehwon (the atux01 path to me is not reliable - use well!perry for email) What follows is an article intended NOT to stir controversy, rather it IS intended to help answer some of the questions shrouding A1000 expansion right now. #begin A lot of people owning A1000's are unsure as to what they should do about upgrading their machines. With the A1000 to A2000 upgrade pol- icy now in effect A1000 owners are presented with many upgrade al- ternatives. In this note I hope to outline some of the alternative paths which you might choose to follow possibly presenting some new ones which you might not have thought of. The A1000 to A2000 Trade In -------------------------------------------------------------------- The upgrade is real. Here's how it works. First, it is of limited time. The offer is good now until October 31st. After that CBM will no longer participate in the upgrade offer but dealers may elect to continue it at their own expense. The finances are as follows: Your old A1000 with no expansion de- vices (or monitor) plus 1000 dollars will get you a basic A2000 system unit (again with no monitor). Your expansion floppy (like the 1010 3.5 inch unit) can be directly used on the A2000 and is not part of the deal. Same is true for ANY other modification done to your machine. (ie: you keep it). Your Choices ------------------------------------------------------------------- Your choices really revolve around two central themes. Either up- grade your A1000 to an A2000 via the above mentioned trade in of- fer or continue to use your present A1000 (expanding it) along the way. A2000 - The Machine That Gives You Flexelence! ------------------------------------------------------------------- (That by the way is the term coined for the A2000 promotional cam- paign going on in the UK - it'd be nice if they had one here - a promotional campaign that is :-) If you choose to go with an A2000 you can either exercise the trade in option now and get the A2000 or get an A2000 sometime in the future. If you do get an A2000 then your inside type expansion products will do you no good. Also, your C Ltd, RS Data, Alegra, Pacific Cypress, Pacific Peripherals, Expansion Technologies, etc will have to be thrown away as well. And, the same goes for any A1000 True Zorro expansion products. Interestingly, if you own a StarBoardII from Microbotics, that com- pany is said to be planning an adapter for their product to the Zorro slots of the A2000 (or 2000-and-1 - see below). However, you can get several fine A2000 True Zorro boards right now which will work directly on the A1000 with an inexpensive adap- ter. For two megabyte boards the best value is from Micron Technol- ogies. And apparently the only eight megabyte board currently ship- ping for the A2000 is the ASDG 8MI. Both of these products can be had with an adapter for the A1000 (in the case of Micron the adap- ter is around 50 bucks - in the case of ASDG the adapter is either free or is 95 bucks). If you think you might go with the A2000 at some point in the fu- ture but want to expand your A1000 now just the same, you should consider a full Zorro II card with a low cost adapter for the A1000. That way, if you stay with your A1000 then you've got your memory board. Or, if you go with the A2000 then you've got your memory board. And also, you might consider that some manufacturers (for example, ASDG) will be coming out with a full scale A2000 compatibility box for the A1000. Thus, boards which were designed for the A2000 can be used on your A1000. (I'll give some pros and cons of this later on). A1000 - The Little Machine That Could (And Does) ------------------------------------------------------------------- You may make the choice to stay with the A1000. You might make this choice for one of a number of reasons: 1. You might not have the bucks to reinvest in the A2000 trade in deal or you might miss out of the deal entirely. 2. You might have some A1000 expansion products already in your possesion which you will not want to toss away if you upgraded to an A1000. This can include A1000 Zorro products, one of the several A1000 internal expansion products, something going on your keyboard port, something going on your video connector or your mouse connectors. 3. You may simply like your A1000 and want to stay with it. If you stay with the A1000 you can expand your machine in one of three approaches: 1. Expand Your A1000 With An Eye Towards An A2000 This is explained above. You can keep all of your options open by purchasing expansion products which are directly compatible with the A2000 and which can be easily adapted to the A1000. For example the ASDG and Micron 2 megabyte memory board can be used directly on an A1000 (and of course on an A2000) and also the ASDG 8 megabyte board for the A2000 can also be used. Not all A2000 boards can so easily be put on an A1000 as those above. This is because the three boards mentioned above do not require the active components normal- ly found in a Zorro BOX to be present in order to work yet work perfectly well if those components ARE there. 2. Expand Your A1000 With Zorro I Standard Products This is still a completely viable option. There are several (fewer today than two months ago though) manufacturers who make FULL SPEC Zorro I boards and boxes. These can usually be had for about the same cost as non-standard products. One thing that should be mentioned here is that if you have REAL Zorro I cards they can be used in a box like the ASDG 2000-and-1. The 2000-and-1 can contain 2 A1000 boards and 6 A2000 boards. Thus, you can expand you A1000 with A1000 standard boards and still make use of products coming out for the A2000. 3. Expand Your A1000 With Non-Standard Stuff If you choose this method of expansion you'll probably get what you pay for. Non-standard slap on the side or internal stuff has ample evidence behind them which clearly show they produce marginal un- predictable results at the very best. Also, chances are very great that your investment cannot be reused if you decide to upgrade to an A2000 in the future. Chances are also great that you won't be able to use non-standard products in an A1000 to A2000 compatibility box. So why close your options? What And A1000 To A2000 Compatibility Box Cannot Give You ------------------------------------------------------------------- I've sung the praises of a box like the ASDG 2000-and-1 which gives you the option of using many A2000 products on your A1000. To be fair, there are some things such a box cannot possibly give you. These are: o The A2000 Video Slot. One cannot reach inside the A1000 and bring outside signals which don't even exist inside an A1000. However, this is probably not as bad as it sounds. The A2000 video slot will be used for things like a gen-lock on a card, well, the A1000 already has several gen-locks a- vailable for it. Boards like frame grabbers will probably go in an A2000 Zorro slot which CAN be had in a box like the 2000-and-1. o Ability To Use 1 Meg of Chip Ram. Someday the A2000 will be able to use 1 megabyte of chip ram. There's nothing an ex- ternal box like the 2000-and-1 can do to solve this defic- iency in the A1000. What An A1000 To A2000 Compatibility Box CAN Do For You ------------------------------------------------------------------- A box like the CSA Turbo Hi-Rise or the ASDG 2000-and-1 will allow you to maintain your invenstment in the A1000 while still affording you an unhidered expansion path to A2000 products. For example, the ASDG 2000-and-1 offers: 2 A1000 Zorro I Slots 5 A2000 Zorro II Slots 1 A2000 CPU Slot 3 IBM Slots 2 3.5 Inch Drive Bays 1 5.25 Inch Drive Bay The CSA product offers a different array of slotage: 7 A2000 Zorro II Slots (I think) 1 A2000 CPU Slot 4 IBM Slots (I think) Space for at least two drives internally. Both products offer different advantages in addition to their com- mon advantage of allowing A1000 owners the opportunity to maintain their investment. Summary ------------------------------------------------------------------- Now is as good a time as any to expand your A1000. But now it is more important than ever to stay with full spec expansion pro- ducts. Getting less than full spec products means you will be stuck for future expansion options while with full spec products your op- tions are just beginning. You should consider upgrading your A1000 with A2000 compatible pro- ducts. Adpaters and full scale racks like the ASDG 2000-and-1 are or will be readily available. Plus if you should go to the A2000 then your expansion products are reasily reused. Your A1000 - The Best Then, And Undiminished With Time. Yours, Perry S. Kivolowitz ASDG Incorporated You may freely cross post this and/or publish this note in any and mediums. Provided you don't alter it of course.