Message-ID: <10043@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Nov-84 16:04:57 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.10043
Posted: Wed Nov 28 16:04:57 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Nov-84 02:07:47 EST
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 18


    I heard rumours at the Canadian Computer Show that atari is coming
    out with five new machines in january.  Three of them will be along
    the line of the 800XL (one the same as the 800, except different
    colour, another like the 800XL but with a better sound chip, and the
    third one is a 128k version).  The other two machines are supposedly
    Mac like (colour and mouse, I doubt that a monitor is included) and
    run an OS by Digital Research...  There are two versions: a 128k  
    version and a 512k version.  The 128k one is supposed to retail for
    ~$550 Cdn. and the 512k for about $650 Cdn. (somewhat hard to believe)

    It should be interesting to see what they finally come out with...


    David Rowley
    ..utzoo!watmath!csc

Message-ID: <302@terak.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Jan-85 14:26:07 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.302
Posted: Fri Jan 25 14:26:07 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Feb-85 11:25:07 EST
References: <262@vax2.fluke.UUCP>
Organization: Terak Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 71

Before I get on about the business of supplying witty rejoinders,
a couple of questions -- 

  According to the press, the new "XE" systems are based on the
  6502C CPU chip.  Question 1:  is it indeed the 6502C, or is
  it the 65C02?  Question 2:  is there anybody producing the
  6502C chip, now that Honeywell has closed down Synertek?

[color=blue]>  1.  Atari has been talking to National for years about the 32000.[/color]
[color=blue]>  This doesn't mean Atari[/color]
[color=blue]>  couldn't use the 68020.[/color]

I go out on a very thick and strong limb and predict that neither
Motorola nor National are capable of producing their 32-bit CPU's
in Atari-size quantities any time this year.  Neither one is even
in *limited* production yet -- but you CAN get engineering samples.

[color=blue]>  2.  A hard disk for $400 is quite reasonable.[/color]

Yes.  As IBM is finding out with their PC-AT, cheap hard disks are
plentiful and terribly unreliable.  I predict that this won't stop
Tramiel, who foisted the *cheap* but nearly unusable 1541 floppy disk
drive on C-64 users.  And made a pile of loot on it.

[color=blue]>  Fancy gate arrays have design[/color]
[color=blue]>  times of a couple of man months[/color]

Wow!  I'd better tell my boss about THIS!  Here we've been ignoring
gate arrays because even the folks that make them claim best case
turn-around of 6 months to first prototype, and maybe a year or more
until a working design is stabilized.

[color=blue]>  The only thing that could[/color]
[color=blue]>  get expensive is VLSI for things like fancy video and sound chips.  These[/color]
[color=blue]>  designs may have been proceeding for some time now (it is pretty clear they[/color]
[color=blue]>  have been)[/color]

Some (maybe all?) of the designs that were proceeding were being done
on contract by Amiga.  Late last year Amiga returned all of the money
to Atari because they were "unable" to produce such chips.  (A point
of contention between Atari and Commodore).  Did Atari have any
"Plan B" going on?  I don't know.

[color=blue]>  No, I think this product is coming.  I can hardly wait.[/color]

Well, you'll just have to.

Sure, the time WILL come when you'll be able to buy a 68K-based
system for a few hundred smackers.  Somebody, whether Atari or
someone else, is bound to do it.  But not this year.  So why
not enjoy what you CAN get this year?

Even when such a system is actually available on your dealer's
shelves, ask yourself if you want one of the first units.  Do YOU want
to be the first person to report every bug?  Do you remember CTIA's?
If you had bought a Commodore 64 for $595 (the original price), how
would you feel about someone else buying one for $195 (10 months later)?
I, for one, wouldn't buy a micro manufactured in the first 6 months
of production.  Why pay top dollar for the first-try design?
When you can't even buy software for it?

Not only that, but consider that by then Atari or someone else
already will have "announced" some even more stupendous product,
which will make the ST look obsolete.  That's the way the game is
played.  Each manufacturer tries to announce something that will
keep you, the consumer, from buying someone else's machine NOW.

"State-of-the-art means it'll be obsolete just as soon as somebody
comes out with something better."
-- 
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug