#WB2.0
They started out real well with the 2000 and 500 with the upgradable
designs. No one expected (I hope) that to be open ended, but to at least
give a lot of the capbility of the next machine (now known as the 3000).
The 2000 will someday have nearly all of that; ECS, the deinterlacer, and
ALMOST as much speed capability (given the bus it can't go as fast, of
course). And the 500 can do nearly as well. CBM's problem seems to be
that they discovered a possible problem with some 3rd party products (not
exactly something new even with the 2000), and rather then put up a list
for us and for dealers they seem to have changed their mind and
'prohibited' the 1 meg chip ram upgrade. One tends to suspect that the
hassle of getting the word out was less an issue then what MIGHT be a
deliberate separation/orphaning of the 500 line; this of course being
outright speculation, of course. And the added word/suggestion that
perhaps 2.0 would arrive later for the 500 then the 2000 added to that
idea; perhaps that 'delay', if for real, could be because extra work is
needed, or again to cause separation. So far, anyone's guess.
I guess part of this is that every time we turn around, CBM seems to have
one of those little surprises for us. My favorite lately was when I went
to WOA in MYC many moons ago and saw that list of accessories 'coming' for
the 3000 (etc), which, if I remember right, included a 'turbo xt'
bridgeboard (I assume based on the 10mhz 2088T clone they may have started
selling). I keep thinking that as most companies look to 386's and 486's
only CBM would go the turbo xt route. I figure that any time they can pull
a real boner they will. Not because of lack of good engineers or other
good staff, but for reasons totally beyond my comprehension.
Ron