CompuServe Messages

This week's EE Times has an article on Commodore and the Ranger vs Atari and the Amy. Some excerpts… Now it looks like Commodore's Ranger and Atari's Amy will beat Apple to the emerging affordable high-end workstation market. … Nine months after its 68000 based Amiga computer failed to blaze a profit trail for Commodore, the company is preparing to launch its 68020 based high end Ranger workstation. … … Amiga managers were projecting that Ranger would bow in "18 to 24 months" pegging it for 1987. Now, it appears to have been accelerated to set the stage for a June unveiling, followed by shipments in the second half of 1986. … … Third party developers that have been working with Ranger prototypes have revealed many of the details of the forthcoming Ranger. They say the 32 bit system will deliver super high resolution graphics, 1024 X 720 pixels in monochrome and color for under $3000. That's a record for a personal computer maker. Ranger will also sport, developers claim, a 20-Mbyte Winchester and a SCSI port. … Ranger is also said to feature 1 Mbyte of RAM standard, expandable to at least 4 Mbytes. .. 16 Mbytes is being considered… Reportedly five internal slots will handle memory expansion, accessory graphics processors and possibly a VME bus expansion chassis. A single 3.5 inch drive will be standard… …. the largest impediment to meeting its projected $3000 price tag is locating a CRT that is inexpensive enough. … … Clock speed is expected to be 14.32 MHz. That is four times faster than the NTSC color crystal frequency. Developers are taking this as an indication that the Ranger will do lots of tricks with NTSC graphics. The article goes on to talk about Atari's plans for the TT system. They apparently have built 3 machines using 68020, NS 32000, and AT&T's WE32000 chip. The front runner for release is said to be the 68020 machine. Then back to Commodore: The Amiga system has not sold in the numbers anticipated by Commodore officials…. One former Commodore official told EE Times that fewer than 25000 Amiga systems have been sold. Despite the elegant architecture … software developers have not provided the 68000 based Amiga with the same number of products that they've unfurled for the rival 68000 based Apple Macintosh and Atari ST computers. … Commodore will introduce a new version of its writable control store (disk to RAM) Amiga operating system at the spring COMDEX. … One of the groups most keen on Ranger's success and its possible effect on Amiga sales is Commodore's bankers. Last winter they allowed extensions of Commodore's credit based in part on an accelerated completion of Ranger. Perhaps the system will sport sufficient silver bullets to stave off competition from Atari's TT system and Apple's rumored 68020 Jonathan workstation.