Article-I.D.: well.2043
Posted: Sat Nov 15 03:10:56 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Nov-86 00:22:55 EST
Organization: Whole Earth Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 58

I tried to post this to the net a while back but the Well ate it so here 
it is again:

==========================================================================

On Sept 11 in net.micro.amiga Rich Rodgers (richr@pogo.UUCP) wrote:
 > 
 > My company is currently working on exactly what you are asking for to be
 > manufactured by C Ltd. (formerly CardCo).  What it is is a SCSI card that
 > attaches to the side of the Amiga (AND PASSES THE BUS!!!), a SCSI
 > controller - hard disk - power-supply combination all for the retail of
 > $995.  As with all C Ltd. products you will only be able to buy it from
 > your local dealer.  It should be available in quantity in 6 to 8 weeks.  If
 > pressured the folks at C Ltd. will probably offer the SCSI board alone for a
 > semi-reasonable cost.  The board will also be available in a ZORRO board
 > version to be shipped shortly after the C Ltd. Expansion Box ships.
 > 
 > Once again...
 > 
 > Richard N. Rodgers
 > Creative Microsystems Inc.
 > 

Is Rich still out there?  Is there any news? It has been 6 weeks as of
last Thursday and is coming quickly up on 8 weeks.
Just dying for a hard disk.

Randy Spencer

ps...

Anybody want to know why the Amiga isn't selling up to it's potential?
Anybody think that it might have anything to do with all the mis-under-
standing the general public has about the machine?  Anybody wonder where
it comes from?  Anybody looked at the "What if the Mac had color?" article
in Mac World?  Notice where it says to use hi-res on the Amiga you have to
go to Black&White.  Says you have to also get a different screen...
Sounds like somebody is refering to the ATARI, no?

Now, isn't Mac World and Amiga World put out by the same people?  Hmm...
The guy who wrote the article is _Chairman_ of Mac World, whatever
that means.  (boy, I tell you!)


Unemployeed (and broke) Dec/Amiga consultant

==================================
soon to get a cute .signature file
==================================

==========================================================================

Since then I have heard that my dealer is going to get them in in a couple 
of weeks.  Anyone know how they are turning out?  My dealer is charging
$995.  Is that a good price?

I had a .signature file all written up and I left it at home, I will
bring it next time, I promise!

Article-I.D.: ulowell.758
Posted: Mon Nov 17 16:12:34 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Nov-86 08:45:45 EST
References: <2043@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: page@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page)
Organization: University of Lowell
Lines: 78
Summary: Shipping Dec 1

Warning: this article is about 75 lines long without headers and
the signature.  Some of the information may be useful, however.

spencer@well.UUCP (Randal Spencer) wrote in article <2043@well.UUCP>:
 > I tried to post this to the net a while back but the Well ate it so here 

Hmmm.  I got both here at ulo-well, on the other coast.

 > On Sept 11 in net.micro.amiga Rich Rodgers (richr@pogo.UUCP) wrote:

 >> SCSI controller - hard disk - power-supply combination all for the retail of
 >> $995.  As with all C Ltd. products you will only be able to buy it from
 >> your local dealer.

I ordered mine last week directly from C Ltd - they have a special deal
for developers, I think it was about $750 for 7-port SCSI, power supply
and 20 MB hard drive.  I say `I think' because I just told them to put it
on my plastic, you know what I mean?  They said it would ship Dec 1.
That's also the same time that Byte-by-Byte's PALjr ($1500 list,
has 1MB RAM and 20 MB DMA hard disk, no clock, doesn't pass the bus,
no expansion ports) will ship.  I already have the CardCo/CLtd aMEGA
one MB board, so I had to get the <$20 pass-through connector for it.

 >> If pressured the folks at C Ltd. will probably offer the SCSI board
 >> alone for a semi-reasonable cost.

It is available alone - I think it's 295 retail, but don't quote me or
flame CLtd if I'm wrong.  They have developer's discounts on that, too,
so you can buy one and hook up your own 600MB SCSI disk :-)

The only problem with all this, I am afraid, is that AmigaDOG can't
keep up with the disk/interface transfer rate.  I saw a 10 MB SCSI
drive (Xebec ?  Something like that) last weekend at the MARCA show
and it looked really sluggish.  It also had a bug someplace - the
DIR command (and LIST too) would loop on a particular entry - I
guess the file pointer was pointing back on itself.  Dave Haynie,
how about a DISKSALV for hard disks - maybe using stiffies for
intermediate file storage?  Just a thought.  DISKED makes me
shudder, as does DISKDOCTOR.  I'd rather mung a copy, if you
know what I mean.  Of course you do.

Sigh.  I've resigned myself to a slow hard disk (because of the
SOFTWARE - I won't even repeat what the author of AmigaDOS was
saying at the Developer's Conference), but at least I won't have
to be constantly changing stiffies (tan, blue or otherwise).

Anybody know of a cheap SCSI tape so I can back up the sucker?
AmigaDOS 1.2 now supports archiving/backup with a special bit
in the directory entry, so I suppose you can expect to see
incremental backup programs soon.

-- warning.  here we digress from technical talk.

 > Anybody want to know why the Amiga isn't selling up to its potential?
 > Anybody think that it might have anything to do with all the mis-under-
 > standing the general public has about the machine?

In my opinion, the Amiga Kernel is too sophisticated for micro
programmers to tackle.  It takes mini hackers (no, not munchkins)
to understand terms like 'message passing.'  Sad but true.  The
world will catch up to the Amiga, but not for a while.  Maybe
Mess-dos version 5 or something.  Maybe by then the Amiga will
have a better DOS (I don't mean kernel) as well.

Look for a large (hopefully well-targeted) ad campaign from CBM
real-soon-now.  My guess is that they waited for both clearance
from the banks and the Sidecar & genlock products to ship.  And
now that 1.2 is Officially Here, what else could hold them back?

 > Now, isn't Mac World and Amiga World put out by the same people?  Hmm...

Last year MacWorld was predicting a Horrible Death for the Amiga.
I don't see Amiga magazines concerning themselves with the Mac.
But variety is the spice of life, eh?

..Bob
-- 
Bob Page,  U of Lowell CS Dept.      ulowell!page,  page@ulowell.CSNET

Article-I.D.: hoptoad.1312
Posted: Tue Nov 18 05:52:03 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Nov-86 09:23:01 EST
References: <2043@well.UUCP> <758@ulowell.UUCP>
Reply-To: farren@hoptoad.UUCP (Mike Farren)
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 16

In article <758@ulowell.UUCP> page@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page) writes:
 > The only problem with all this, I am afraid, is that AmigaDOG can't
 > keep up with the disk/interface transfer rate.  I saw a 10 MB SCSI
 > drive (Xebec ?  Something like that) last weekend at the MARCA show
 > and it looked really sluggish.

Did it have an effective DMA circuit?  Non-DMA disks will be sluggish,
can't help themselves.  I don't see any reason why the 'miga can't keep
up with the fairly slow data rates SCSI uses...


-- 
----------------
                 "... if the church put in half the time on covetousness
Mike Farren      that it does on lust, this would be a better world ..."
hoptoad!farren       Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"

Article-I.D.: utcs.1986Nov19.104846.321
Posted: Wed Nov 19 10:48:46 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Nov-86 11:10:27 EST
References: <2043@well.UUCP> <758@ulowell.UUCP>
Reply-To: wagner@utcs.UUCP (Michael Wagner)
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services, general purpose UNIX
Lines: 6
Checksum: 34047


Bob  Page suggested, in his article, that Amiga software would prevent a
DMA hard disk from performing well.  I don't understand this.  Did I mis-interpret
his statement?  Or can someone fill me in on this?

Michael Wagner (wagner@utcs)