[Search for users] [Overall Top Noters] [List of all Conferences] [Download this site]

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

1586.0. "Amigas and SDI??" by LEDS::ACCIARDI (I Blit, therefore I am...) Wed Aug 10 1988 12:24

FROM USENET....

LOOK OUT! WE'VE BEEN SPOTTED!

[Excerpted without permission...]

FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK, Vol 2, August 1st 1988, No. 31
Page 25, "Amiga Arrives?".

When thieves recently broke into the office of the Strategic
Defense Initiative Oragnization - the group handling SDI
research - they stole a computer reportedly used to simulate
missle attack and defense scenarios.
The computer, with a 32-bit Motorola 68030 chip as its
CPU, had a sophisticated multitasking operating system that
could run 20 simultaneous tasks......
....It was a Commodore Amiga, a microcomputer still widely
perceived as a game machine for the pleasure of 12-year-olds.
Missle defense, however, is serious business, and SDI
researchers, like many others in federal agencies and
contractors, have found the Amiga to be a powerful and much
underapreciated computer. The Amiga has found increasing
acceptance in federal agencies that require its sophisticated
multitasking, graphics and animation capabilities in
applications from scientific research to desktop publishing
and video production, from computer-aided design and
engineering to inventory control in high-security
installations.
. . .

The article tells how many of a number of different kinds of software are
available for the Amiga. (It's quite impressive.) It also states that some
Amiga users describe Commodore's top managment attitude to be "brain dead".
But that the technical staff (You listening CATS? :-) ) have been devoted to making it a success. The article describes the 2000 and 500, with a comparison
of the merits of each model. Talks about the OS and how 1.3 will allow
autoboot from a hard drive. All in all, it seems to be a well written and
definitely up-beat review of the Amiga. Hurrahh! We've been NOTICED!

Enjoy!
--
...!hadron\ "Who?... Me?... WHAT opinions?!?" | Edwin Wiles
...!sundc\ Schedule: (n.) An ever changing | NetExpress Comm., Inc.
...!pyrdc\ nightmare. | 1953 Gallows Rd. Suite 300 ...!uunet!netxcom!ewiles | Vienna, VA 22180

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1586.1	"Federal Computing" scooped by "Compute!"	TLE::RMEYERS	Randy Meyers	`Wed Aug 10 1988 12:45`	22
	Re: .0 While doing some late night (3am) grocery shopping, I saw one of those "lesser" computer magazines like Compute! has an interview with Max Toy, Commodore president. So, I looked over the article (2 pages) as my milk warmed up to room temperature. I remember he commented on the success that they were having selling into the business market and mentioned that they had some some machines to the Department of Defense, SDI, or NORAD, or someone like that. > The computer, with a 32-bit Motorola 68030 chip as its > CPU, ... And I thought those ads for CSA's 030 board were vapor. > ... had a sophisticated multitasking operating system that > could run 20 simultaneous tasks...... Typical poor journalism. I've have more than 20 tasks running on my Amiga.
1586.2	beat me to it	ANT::JANZEN	Tom 296-5421 LMO2/O23	`Wed Aug 10 1988 12:55`	11
	Yeah, I'm sorry, I saw that article about the sdi theft last week and forgot to post it. The office from which the amiga was taken (with missile simulation s/w on it) is under the escalator from the subway (red/yellow lines) up to the pentagon front door (all enclosed) entrance. I need an escort to get in, and all I did was eat in the cafeteria, which is near the front. Makes me wonder how safe it is in there. Tom
1586.3	20=limit on active CLIs	LEDS::ACCIARDI	I Blit, therefore I am...	`Wed Aug 10 1988 13:44`	8
	re: .1 I think you can only have 20 CLIs active at once, although the author certainly didn't understand that. SYSMON tells me that I have 17 tasks running before Workbench is even loaded.
1586.4	USENET working ??	PUERTO::ALVAREZ	Miguel,from sunny Puerto Rico	`Wed Aug 10 1988 15:59`	18
	> < Note 1586.0 by LEDS::ACCIARDI "I Blit, therefore I am..." > > -< Amigas and SDI?? >- > > > FROM USENET.... Sorry, this doesn't have to do with the topic, but how did you get USENET ? ( I believe from comp.sys.amiga ??). I haven't received anything from comp.sys.amiga for the past two weeks (except for about 500 lines last week). I checked the AMIGA_USENET and AMIGA_TECH VAXnotes conferences and they are in the same situation, so I thought this was a "DEC-wide" problem. Anybody has additional information ??? Miguel A. Alvarez
1586.5	Plink pulls through again	LEDS::ACCIARDI	I Blit, therefore I am...	`Wed Aug 10 1988 16:09`	9
	Heh heh... I cheated; I got this particular item from Plink. Plink always posts comp.sys.amiga and comp.amiga.tech, but whenever a particularly hot item arrives, the sysop posts it directly in the message base, which I read every day. Ed.
1586.6	20 processes isn't very high on an amiga	VIDEO::LEIBOW	Michael Leibow	`Wed Aug 10 1988 22:35`	3
	I've got 20 processes running right now on my Amiga and the "performance monitor" still shows idle time.
1586.7	50 tasks or more	NEXUS::D_WHITE	Uncle Dave	`Sun Aug 14 1988 23:56`	20
	About 3 years ago (has it been THAT long?) I was writing a term paper for a Computer Science class. Basically, I was doing some research to decide whether or not I wanted to get an Amiga (actually, that's not quite accurate -- I had already made up my mind; I just needed some ammunition to justify it since there were already 2 other computers in the household at the time!) Anyway, I don't remember the source, and I can't even find a copy of my paper, but there was a little gem about Amiga multi-tasking I read that blew me away. It was something to the effect that Commodore engineers were trying to test how many simultaneous tasks they could get going on the Amiga. The gist of it was that they opened about 50 windows (using the little graphics demos that come on Workbench, I believe). Apparently, the Amiga was humming along just fine, but the engineers lost track of how many windows they had open! I suspect that the number of tasks you can run at once also depends on WHAT the tasks are. It is soooo nice having a computer which doesn't have to handle ho-hum housekeeping chores. This leaves it almost entirely free to kick butt when faced with a truly compute- bound task...