Commodore didn't have to drop Zorro I.
Peter da Silva
out with Zorro-I card slots.
Just make them horizontal.
You would have lost some convection cooling, but proper placement would have
allowed the fan to draw air straight over the cards.
And you would have been able to get to the cards without popping the top off
and pulling the machine out of your hutch.
It would have been harder to make it IBM-PC compatible, but then that's
another advantage to the scheme. (only 1/2 :->)
--
-- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.
Hans Hansen
$There is no reason on God's green earth that the 2000 could not have come
$out with Zorro-I card slots.
$
The REAL 'Los Gatos' A2000 had/has Zorro-I slots and it was working!!! What
it didn't have was an IBM interface !-) The REAL A2000 was up and running
prior to the 1986 Monterey Calif., Developers Conference!
$--
$-- Peter da Silva
BTW I expect Commodore to anounce a NEW user iconic interface to replace
Intuition ... GEM! :-|
Hans
George Robbins
Actually, the Los Gatos A2000 prototype was along these lines. It used
an A1000 main-board (*NO* enhancements, folks), *two* more PC boards to
adapt from the A1000 expansion connector to the horizontal slots. It
had 5 "Zorro I" slots, only 4 of which were usable unless you replaced
the RAM/ROM tower with ROM's. There was some sort of arrangment whereby
a ribbon cable would connect a varient of the sidecar/bridgeboard to
the backplane and somehow provide a single PC slot. Externally, it looked
a lot like a PC or the current A2000. I don't think it had the magical
keyboard garage. In short, it had no advantage over the current design,
*except* the "Zorro I" slots and would have had to retail for a much
higher price to cover the cost of all the complications.
It should be admitted the the Los Gatos crew wasn't all that eager to make
this A2000. Their plans had apparently been for something more powerful,
to be delivered at some poorly defined later date.
Disclaimer: This is pretty much from memory and past converstations, I was
busy on the late, lamented Commodore Unix Box (C900) and later
the A500 and not directly involved with Amiga/A2000 affairs.
--
George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing arpa: out to lunch...
Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
Andy Finkel
>The REAL 'Los Gatos' A2000 had/has Zorro-I slots and it was working!!! What
>it didn't have was an IBM interface !-) The REAL A2000 was up and running
>prior to the 1986 Monterey Calif., Developers Conference!
Actually, I don't remember any of us (I used to hang around LG a bit :-)
being especially pleased with the 'Los Gatos' A2000. It was a quick and dirty
machine, had 1 PC slot, and was a mechanical nightmare inside. As
I recall, it was just a hack, and didn't help the machine we
were actually interested in doing (remember Ranger ?) a bit.
>BTW I expect Commodore to anounce a NEW user iconic interface to replace
>Intuition ... GEM! :-|
>
>Hans
no, instead I think we'll announce CAOS. :-) Talk about mixed emotions
on the part of the developer community. :-)
Tripos actually has been very educational. I've read the CAOS
specs, and even used the prototype (on a Sage micro). AmigaDOS
does a number of things better than that would have. I think that
we could design a killer DOS at this point. Maybe someday;
ie 2.0 cause it would break everybody in existence. (Including
people who don't even use Amigas :-)
But I ramble...
--
andy finkel {ihnp4|seismo|allegra}!cbmvax!andy
Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
a rigged demo."
Any expressed opinions are mine; but feel free to share.
I disclaim all responsibilities, all shapes, all sizes, all colors.
Peter da Silva
> [description of totally hacked up A2000 prototype at Los Gatos.]
Hmmm. I would like to point out that a totally hacked up design produced under
duress can't be considered proof that the concept is wrong. You shouldn't need
more than 2 PC boards: (1) Amiga motherboard (like the 500, but with the 86-pin
card edge at the back). (2) pure slot board, with an 86-pin slot and <n> Zorro
slots. The motherboard plugs into the 86-pin "slot zero".
On the other hand, this experience would have turned anyone off.
So, where's my cheap Zorro-2 box for the A-1000 that doesn't force me to
raise my monitor Yet Another Inch Or So?