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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Marketplace => Topic started by: Chain on February 14, 2006, 06:04:18 AM

Title: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: Chain on February 14, 2006, 06:04:18 AM
http://cgi.ebay.com/Commdore-Amiga-Comp_W0QQitemZ8766140962QQcategoryZ4598QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 :-o  :lol:
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: BadBigBen on February 14, 2006, 06:17:09 AM
I am ROLLING ON THE FLOOR already....

did ya see the Shipping Charges on that....
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: koaftder on February 14, 2006, 09:00:55 AM
Dang, i had 2 of thoes when i was in high school, both of which i found at different times laying out side for the trash guys to pick up. Mine had a warning lable on the top indicating that the machine was 20kg and that you should use caution when lifting.

They were both 286 systems with mca buss. Cards installed were a pain, as you needed a disc to load the firmware or someting. I hated mca buss, loose the disk you are screwed. And this was before i had internet access.

One of the machines had a 286->386 upgrade chip. They are built like tanks, very hevy, lots of steel. The handle was a nice touch. The handle it's self was solid steel, and probably weighed like 5 pounds.

The harddrive that was installed in both was quite large(physically), a full height 5.25 brick that took like 20 seconds to spin up, and sounded really cool. It was mounted with blue rubber mounts.

Both could do 320x200@256 color. They could both drive 640x480 but i dont remember the color depth ( probably 16)

Memory was limited, i think on may have had 8mb, the other 4.

Used the upgraded one mainly for runnin my qbasic programs. At some point i got ahold of a p133, and i beleived i smashed the ibm machines on the driveway.
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: justthatgood on February 14, 2006, 02:14:27 PM
I have the case to one of those some where. I also had a
IBM PS/2 Model 55 SX (http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=682=12)

One thing I can tell you about most, if not all of those IBM systems. I those suckers were heavier then a death metal band from Sweden :lol:
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: angrybrit on February 14, 2006, 03:12:42 PM
They came with the best keyboards ever made.  IIRC these PCs had a lifetime warranty (as long as you have them).  

Could you imagine how different the PC industry would be today if the IBM executives didn't keep the MCA (first P&P on x86!) from going mainstream.  IBM could have made their own PReP-compliant mobos and let Taiwan do the thing they do best.

IBM executives are really retarded.  They must have had their education from Dilbert comics back then... :lol:
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: asian1 on February 14, 2006, 04:21:30 PM
NCR, Bull, ALR also sell Microchannel machines.

Several IBM PowerPC machine also use Microchannel.

There are crazy Microchannel cards:
1. Mainframe in a card (IBM PS/2 295, IBM P70 Portable).
2. Quad / Dual Intel i860 card (Wizard)

The latest IBM microchannel server: 720 with 6 Pentium I/90 CPU.

There is a dual side network card: one for ISA bus, the other side for Microchannel (IRMA).

Proposal for creating USB Microchannel card failed (too late).
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: PaSha on February 14, 2006, 04:23:48 PM
There is however one rare item on eBay right now, a genuine C= A4000T. Sadly, the front door is missing....
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: angrybrit on February 14, 2006, 05:42:56 PM
@asian1

I am aware about these companies using MCA in their PCs/Peripherals.

Back then...

There was a problem: Lack of Plug And Play on x86 PCs.
Solution: MCA was the only solution at the time.
Problem: License fees were too expensive.

Finally Microsoft took care of the problem...  In '95~96. :roll:
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: Paul on February 14, 2006, 06:29:14 PM
@ Chain,

Copyright infrignement!!!! Patent infringement!!!!!  

Well it COULD be, except that I never copyrighted or patented Frankenthousand. But the back of that IBM case looks identical with the 386 IBM server I gutted and used to house my Franeknthousand project. Not only are A1000 motherboards rather large, but trying to add in an accelerator, flicker fixer, ROM Switcher and SCSI/IDE controller along with multiple hard drives and CD burner was getting to be too much for even TWO A1000 cases stacked.

I painted mine black and laid it down like a desktp case, though.

Anyway, that's about the only connection I can think of between this case and the Amiga.

Hehe. . .   I did once call Frankenthousand a "portable" Amiga because of the built in handle.  :-D

Paul
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: koaftder on February 15, 2006, 02:44:47 PM
dude says he was going to relist the item later. Maybe it was a fowl up, maybe the ebayer just posted what he was told it was... That machine is god awful heavy, but 175 is excessive
Title: Re: New RARE amiga tower from IBM :)
Post by: KThunder on February 15, 2006, 03:03:16 PM
i had one of those it was a 386 with a 486 accelerator i got when i was working at ibm, god awful heavy is pretty accurate, you didnt need to worry about anybody stealling it though. the college i want to had several in offices and they all had a platform with castor wheels on it so they could roll them around