#Comdex Info…
41 messages in this thread
Got some minor Comdex news, thought y'all would be interested.
First, some depressing news…visited the Psygnosis booth (located in the
Softkat section of the show, actually). I was quite distressed to find no
Amiga in the booth, and playfully chastised the reps there. They assured
me that the Amiga was still their development platform, and that the folks
at Comdex would have no idea what an Amiga was, and just get confused.
Also, they mentioned that they did not get an AGA machine until a few weeks
before they were generally available…as a result, we will not see an AGA
capable game for a long while, if ever (since they are also waiting to see
how well they sell).
More interesting were the new SyQuest drives that were being shown. There
are, contrary to rumor, two new drives, not one. The first is a 2.5" 42
meg cart drive; it is IDE only, and fits quite nicely in a laptop.
The second, and of more interest to the folks in Amigaland, is the
expected 105 megger. It is available in SCSI and IDE, and has a 3.5" form
factor. It appears to be much faster than the older 44s and 88s, and best
of all, it has a filter on the carts for improved safety. The price should
sink down to that of the Sy88 pretty quickly, judging from what the reps
had to say.
Intel was showing their Indeo Video…very lame, worse than
QuickTime. Of course, the PC heads were eating it up. Even running on
some of the new, superfast localbus accelerated cards, it was nothing to
write home about. I did not expect to be impressed, and was not. There is
no way that this is going to run on the Tandy Windows version of CDTV that
is upcoming…it will be like a 6fps slide show.
C= is at Bally's…I have not yet caught up with them yet, since I
am not really here for fun. Hopefully, I will have some time later in the
week.
Jonathan, via TAPCIS…from COMDEX
Thanks for the report Jonathan!
Steve
Thanks for the Comdex report. I just hit a local Radio Shack and they had
a Philips CD-I player up front with a grainy, fairly static demo going.
Pretty turgid stuff, even though the CD-I folks insist their rig blows
CDTV away. The rig was on sale for $499. No sign of Tandy VIS! Meanwhile,
the store was showing off a 50 mhz 486 Tandy machine. It was running
Windows and I clicked up a 3-D animation demo. I think these were created
in Autodesk. They were nothing to write home about. Ran only in a
quarter-screen window, with jerky motion and in colors that easily could
be matched on an Amiga. Maybe I didn't see the best that an Intel machine
can do. I'm sure those demos would impress a lot of computer neo-buyers,
but they were poor compared to what stock Amigas can do. Yes, there is
hope.
Ron,
Trust me, after seeing what I have seen…Intel based machines are doing
better and better with video and animation. Of course, I have yet to see
anything that *really* impresses me…
Jonathan
So what's the story on the 1200 at Comdex? I'm surprised nobody has posted
any details yet as to price, basic configuration, etc. So whats the
scoop?
John – K7KB (Flying via AutoPilot)
From Commodores press release it would appear that the basic configuration
for the A1200 is 14Mhz 68EC020 with 2Meg of CHIP ram, 88K floppy, AGA
chipset, and the PCMCIA card slot. MSRP is to be $699 with availability
slated for early December.
Dean
DKB Software
I love it!!!
Now I can get a 1200 and hopefully network it to my Toaster system.
I was thinking of dumping 040 and Toaster and going with an A 4000,
NOT!! I want my LW 3.0!!!!
I bet CBM could sell a couple million of them next year, to established
Amiga owners of course…
Later
"…and the PCMCIA card slot."
Not _two_ slots?
Each PCMCIA slot takes up 4MB of expansion space. Two slots = 8MB = oops!
No room left for 32-bit Fast RAM!
Besides, serious peripherals are gonna go in the little trapdoor slot. And
PCMCIA modems only make sense on the Amiga for their "cute appeal."
Right re the PCMIA slot. I should think hard storage, memory, modems,
etc., can be handled via the trap door and the rear connectors. The PCMIA
slot would then be handy for peripherals that change the character of the
system. E.g., a digitizer/scanner, extra RAM for those programs when you
need it, programs that are distributed only on PCMIA cards (possible) or
cheaper on PCMIA (more possible). And so on. However, I do note there is
now a PC laptop out with TWO PCMIA ports.
Ron,
I've noticed that a number of people have used the term "PCMIA", but
I'm writning to you since your message was handy. 😎
From everything that I've read (excluding the messages here), I've
always seen the term referred to as "PCMCIA", and not "PCMIA". Is the
latter term also acceptable, or is it just an error in usage that keeps
getting perpetuated here on CIS? 😎
Thanks.
Dom Fontana
<– Sent from New York via AutoPilot –>
It's wishful thinking–we all want the PC to be MIA. 🙂
Nope, it's a perpetuated typo. Should be PCMCIA.
And me– I'd like to see the PCMCIA be "MIA" –I think it's more of a
drawback than an advantage. It screws up the memory map (makes the top 4
megs non-useable) and is useless for memory (memory on a PCMCIA on a 1200
is *ONE-FOURTH* the speed of FastRAM on an expansion card. A modem? Just
put one on the serial port and you'll have a better, cheaper modem than any
PCMCIA implementation. Check prices before you argue with me. Might be a
limited application for "personality" ROM cards –but such would be pretty
expensive independent of the application. I would have preferred that the
cost of the PCMCIA socket be diverted to provide on-board SCSI –which
would have been MUCH more useable than PCMCIA. Onboard scsi would have
provided a better migration path to the 1200 for Amiga users; relatively
cheap access to ethernet via a scsi converter; printers; tape; and other
scsi peripherals.
–Redmond
Redmond,
But once you upgrade the processor the 4MB becomes a moot matter, since
your memory map grows to a gigabyte. The vast majority of folks who'll be
happy with an EC020 will probably also be more than happy with 6MB of
RAM.
I've never thought PCMCIA modems made any sense, but for stuff that might
otherwise never be developed in an Amiga-compatible form, such as
Ethernet, it might make sense.
I'm not a big supporter of PCMCIA, but I do think it has the potential to
get interesting.
In defense of PCMCIA, I'd like to offer two points: XIP and combined hw/sw.
PCMCIA allows for an eXecute In Place option which allows for a program to
be run directly from the card without being loaded into memory (what CBM
should have done with the RAM & RAD disks). Granted, memory is used for
screens, fonts, etc. but the program itself isn't loaded. Saves lots of
memory from being used.
Second, PCMCIA allows for hardware and software to reside on one card.
There is a prototype fax/modem card that not only had the fax/modem
circuitry, but a PC compatible terminal/fax program as well. Combine this
with XIP and you have a powerful addition to any computer. The possibility
of: 1) true copy protection on games (built in dongle, like a cartridge);
2) plug and play hardware — put a fax/modem with a small PC, Mac and Amiga
term prog on one card. Using CrossDOS the A1200 can read PC format cards
and run the Amiga version of the program. One card work with almost all
machines.
I would *much* rather see IDE and PCMCIA on an A1200 as opposed to SCSI (or
even SCSI-2) and no PCMCIA on an A1200/A600. Actually, I'd like to see an
Amiga laptop with dual-PCMCIA slots and no floppy drive. PCMCIA is the way
of the future and I'm glad Commodore stumbled on to it now.
-Chas
Thanks, Denny, re: PCMCIA.
Dom Fontana
<– Sent from New York via AutoPilot –>
OTOH, PCMCIA ethernet adaptors make a LOT of sense.
Vic,
Yes, they do. I just posted a message to Malcolm in AmigaTech about a
company in your area advertising them. You might want to check it out, if
you're not familiar with them already. (Bet that they don't have an Amiga
driver for it, though…<hint><hint><hint> 😉
David
Dean,
Will you be working on some super gizmo that will allow me to disect
one of these 1200's and graft the pieces onto my 3000?
-Richard
Richard,
Uhhhh?? I don't know!!! 8)
Really, What pieces do you want to graft onto your A3000?
Dean
DKB Software
just thre easy pieces… A G A <g>
Somehow I thought that would be the answer! 8)
Dean
DKB Software
Yep. That's the answer!
-Richard
Although that's not a bad price for the 1200, I was expecting it to be a
little lower (maybe hopeing is more like it). With a 65meg IDE drive that
puts it at around the $950 range. I think a price of $599 MSRP would have
made it a little more competitive with the cheap clones and the Falcon.
John – K7KB (Flying via AutoPilot)
I dunno. I heard the US version of the A1200 will be $699 retail including
an IDE hard drive. If so, that's a killer product.
Ron,
The $699 includes the IDE interface, but no drive.
Still, A1200 with IDE interface for $699 list is a remarkable price,
wouldn't you agree? I have visions of Parnetting an A1200 with extra RAM
into my maxed-out A2000HD. Because of the heavy investment I've got in
this box, I don't want to start over just yet.
Ron,
Absolutely. Anyone who thinks that's too expensive for an A1200 obviously
never paid as much as I did for an A1000.
🙂
Yes, but when you bought your A1000 they didn't have 386SX clones selling
for less than $1000, including the monitor.
John – K7KB (Flying via AutoPilot)
Yeah, but an 386SX clone isn't comparable to an A1000….
Considering the U.K. price is #399 and the #sterling is running around
$1.60 the U.S. price doesn't look all THAT good.
Vic, are you sure the British pound is only $1.60? It was nearly $2.00
when I was in England in August.
-Dave (via AutoPilot)
Dave,
The pound has plummeted. It was 1.91 a few month ago, now it's about
$1.56.
Denny, guess I'll have to go back to England…this time I'll be able to
afford to buy something! 8^)
-Dave (via AutoPilot)
Oops, you must have missed it when you blinked 🙂 The pound is closer to
$1.50 now. — Art
Well, I wasn't, but Khalid nicely checked the # sterling for me and…
reported US$ 1.509 as of today
The pound was recently forced out of the European ERM (Exchange Rate
Mechanism), this effectively devalued the pound.
Greg
It's now $1.52 to the pound. Take a vacation to England NOW!!
Suresh, I've got more vacation time coming in January…I wouldn't mind
spending a couple more weeks in London!
-Dave (via AutoPilot)
It is $699 Retail.. but that is without a hard disk.
As of yet, Commodore US Sales has not announced a price for the A1200 with
a hard disk. The number we hear is $999.
-mark=