Quote:
Originally Posted by sandruzzo
if commodore would have done some fixes on it, it could have been a "good" Amiga.
- 8 audio channel at 14mhz 16 bit dac with 8 bit volume level.
- 14 mhz 32 bit blitter
- 14 mhz 32 bit copper (2 stage chip, like blitter, and it able to access to all dma's slots)
- 128 kb of fast ram
- a separated bus for chips' register
- trap door ram accessible to cpu + blitter + copper
|
128
kb FastRAM?
It already was a good
Amiga. By not making the blitter 32 bit they ensured compatibility with earlier models, and the sound didn't need upgrading. But they
did put a full 32 bit bus in the trapdoor slot, which meant they didn't have to provide FastRAM or a more powerful CPU because third parties could do it. So now,
27 years later, we still haven't run out of upgrade possibilities. Compare that to your average 386-SX PC (non-upgradable CPU, 8MHz 16 bit ISA slots etc.).
I recently bought a 386-SX motherboard off eBay, and have been gradually collecting bits for it. Luckily it has VGA on the motherboard (because ISA bus VGA cards suck), but max 'fast' RAM is only 4MB, and I can only install 2MB because two of the simm slots are broken. The 25MHz CPU is soldered onto the board and there is no socket for another. I can't find a manual for this board so changing the configuration jumpers will be hit-and-miss. Next job is to find an old IDE hard drive that will work with it (oh God it's coming back to me now - CHS? LBA? 3.3V bus compatibility? how many Megabytes max?).
With those specs it won't be running Win95, so I will install DOS and Win3.1 - then I will compare it to my A1200 and see which is the better machine!