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Author Topic: How would you have designed AGA Amigas?  (Read 9240 times)

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Offline Khephren

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Re: How would you have designed AGA Amigas?
« on: March 02, 2010, 10:23:47 AM »
I'd have got rid of the PCMCIA port. It was an expensive (though almost out of date) laptop part. Would have spent the money on A superHD floppy drive, fast RAM and a faster processor. Rejigged the case to allow a 3.5" HDD upgrade, and maybe room for a slimline CD upgrade.

Also, i'd have had the machine boot completely from ROM, with a small amount of EEPROM (upgradable) For wall papers/files/utilities/system upgrades. Maybe 512K. It would then perform a lot like a HDD equipped machine, but at a fraction of the cost. None of that constant swapping disks.

Updated Paula to 16 bit
Maybe add Midi, the ST was on it's last legs, Commodore could have canibalised their market.

Maybe even buy the ROM off Atari and sell Amiga A1200 with ST compatability ;)


Added chunky modes, maybe 24bit modes as well.

Some sort of anti flicker hardware to allow interlace to display better, and be suitable for games.

Maybe added a DSP to help decode audio/video and perhaps help with 3D

Upgraded the blitter to blit 3D objects.

Socketed processor and ram, allowing the trapdoor to be used for other upgrades.

HAM or 24bit chunky workbench. That would have wowed people.

Created a mid range desktop/tower same as above, but with zorro's, but no ISA.
...sold off the pc division early,
...bought some top games companies with the proceeds.
 

Offline Khephren

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Re: How would you have designed AGA Amigas?
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2010, 08:18:42 PM »
Quote from: tone007;545855
PCMCIA almost out of date in 1992?  That's only slightly ridiculous, considering you can still find new PCMCIA cards today (sure, most are CardBus by this point.)  I bet 600/1200 users everywhere appreciate the low cost to get their machines on the network and ease of data transfer via PCMCIA/CF adapters.


How long did you have to wait for drivers for those cards? 10 years?

CF cards? only slightly rediculous, as we are talking about 1992...

As for betting that 600/1200 users appreciate it....they do now....but 99%
of users never got to take advantage of that expensive 16bit bit of crap hanging off the side,
they moved to the PC that had a CD rom slot, and the ability to add one cheaply.
 

Offline Khephren

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Re: How would you have designed AGA Amigas?
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2010, 11:15:36 PM »
Quote from: tone007;545938
So then it wasn't out of date, it was ahead of its time!


lol. Like so much about the Amiga.

The only out of date thing a bout the Amiga eas Commodore itself ;)