Re: IIgs kills ARM-A2 prototype! Film at 11.

[toddpw@ugcs.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)]

supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) writes:

>What you are neglecting is the fact that your timeline is only relevant
>when refering to the Archimedes PC.

Not true. Borrow a copy of the "Atack" book (see the amazon.com ref) from
a Newton enthusiast and note that the first ARM1 _silicon_ was fabbed in
April 1985.

>The prototype ARM A2 was probably using a "developer release"
>chip.

Not possible. Actual ARM chips _did_ _not_ _exist_ before April 1985.

>Mac 128 was NOT strong in floating point!

I didn't say that it was. What I _did_ say was that the first 32-bit "A"
computer to support hardware floating point was the Mac II which had an
empty socket for a 68881 coprocessor, fully two years before either the
Amiga or the Achimedes offered hardware floating point, even as options.

Actually it might have been possible in the A1000, but it would have been
relatively crippled and slow. The same principle as the Apple II Floating
Point Engine could in theory be used on the A1000, or any computer with
an expansion slot really.

>>Supertimer, the Amiga vs. Archimedes contest you saw was rigged against the
>>Amiga somehow. Both machines had various speed options, so unless you can
>>remember a lot about them, we'll never know why the Archimedes did so well.

>It was not rigged, but it did use the 8Mhz model of the Archimedes
>vs. the Amiga 1000.

What periperhals did they have? The year may be important too, because as
of 1989 you could buy hardware floating point for the Archimedes, but the
A1000 had no convenient means of using a floating point coprocessor.

It is also quite possible that the Archimedes simply had more video memory
bandwidth than the Amiga, because it had a 2-cycle 32 bit data bus whereas
the poor 68000 in the A1000 only had a 4-cycle 16 bit data bus. In fact,
that's probably it right there! The early Amiga sucked vs. the ARM on simple
memory bandwidth alone, until the 68020 &up Amigas came out.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ ugcs.caltech.edu