CompuServe Messages

<cont'd> Then we must add in the new fullscreen/fullmotion realtime video decoding from disc (which I have little info on). Betcha it goes into one plane, which STILL gives you another full video chip plane to overlay menus/gfx/animation with. Plus the CD quality audio SFX generator/mixer chips. Each plane has its own blitter/coprocessor, I believe. CPU->video RAM accesses (assuming coproc not running on that plane) are always interleaved half and half. None of that silly hires cpu lockout like on the Amiga. The processor is a 15Mhz 68070, with dual channel DMA. There is also the main OS in ROM, 8K of non-volatile RAM for system and application use, and a realtime clock/calendar. All this, versus CDTV based on an A500 chassis? Throw the expansion unit with SCSI, serial, parallel, drives, RAM, and keyboard on this puppy, and it's one sweet CDROM/video machine. And yes, running multitasking/user OS-9. Or GEM, for that matter. Or Tripos. Or UniFlex (SVR4 compatible… virtual mem and uses the cpu's built-in MMU for full protection). They're all available for the base 68070. So to be quite blunt, CBM is da*ned lucky that the CD-I players hadn't made it out already to consumers! This is the base machine Commodore themselves _should've_ come out with two years ago. And when it hits, you can start kissing CDTV goodbye. Maybe more. IMHO, of course. Which is why I think CBM must be feverishly working on a basic Amiga video upgrade. – kev PS: I *told* you not to ask <smile>!