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From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Looking into amiga
Message-ID: <35221@sun.uucp>
Date: Tue, 1-Dec-87 18:07:37 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.35221
Posted: Tue Dec  1 18:07:37 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Dec-87 03:32:11 EST
References: <3725@uwmcsd1.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 49

[Sorry, wisc.edu seems to be unreachable from here, probably the BITNET
 filter.]

In article <3725@uwmcsd1.UUCP> (Thomas M Johnson) writes:
|> First, about the Amiga 2000's IBM compatiblility. What expansion are cards
|> are you able to use? Multifunction cards, modems, etc?

Any IBM PC card. There are three slots. With some connectors and an 80286
bridge card they can be IBM PC/AT slots.

|> How software compatible is the bridgeboard to IBM software and how
|> fast does it emulate?

I have yet to see something that doesn't work on it, since it really
is a clone in the box the speed is the same as a 'real' PC. The only
incompatibility that I know of is that the COM2: interrupt is used 
for the shared memory manager and thus is unavailable to DOS. 

|> Next, and I guess the most asked question, about the multitasking.
|> How much does it slow the machine down? 

Not at all. When other tasks are running, it depends on what resources
you are competing for (disk, CPU, memory, etc)

|> Is this possible....
|>      Having a BBS program running while doing other things like writing
|>      a C program?

Yes, several people do this. 

|> Is the desktop is ROM or do you have to load it from disk (yech!)

Most everything is in ROM, all you have to do on the disk is set up
the environment you like. 

|> Now onto the Amiga 500......
|> I've heard it is software compatible but not hardware compatible.
|> What can't you use with the A500? How well does the multitasking
|> operate on the 500?

No, slots. So it can't use A2000 expansion cards (unless you buy a
third party expansion product). Multitasking works the same, you  
won't notice it's there. When you use a single tasking machine again
you will definitely notice that it is missing.


--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew  I mLDR80
4['"]/e