RJScott: Hello Folks! HazyDave is on his way. While you can't 'talk' in the Auditorium you can comment or ask a question by pressing F7 and choosing ASK A QUESTION Press a return at the end of a line to continue, and TWO returns will SEND the question or comment. All questions or comments sent are held in a 'Queue' in the order sent. To get to the TENTH question sent, we must go through the first NINE. So please be patient if your question/comment isn't addressed immediately. While only YOUR name and the names of those of us on stage show on your screen there are others here. All you have to do to see how MANY are here is Press F7 select LEAVE the AUDITORIUM but do NOT LEAVE. Instead, list Public Rooms and you'll see how many folks are here with us. We now have 25 guests here. Please do not send OLMS to the Speakers during the Forum. They tend to disrupt and delay the proceedings. Thanks! It's especially important that Dave not receive OLMS, since it hampers his ability to reply to your questions. And without further adieu, here's Dave!

Hazy Dave: Hi folks. Dave Haynie here (finally). I guess I'll get started right away!

Question: What will Commodore's trade-in policy be for Amiga 1000 owners?

Hazy Dave: I don't know the official version of that yet. It is possible that they haven't fully decided on this. I believe there's an official word coming around May 1. ga

Question: When will the 2000 be available? When will the Amiga be available ?

Hazy Dave: Its currently shipping in Europe. I'm not sure of the exact release date in the US. Its in FCC testing right now, and of course, can't be shipped until its certified.

Question: What will the cost be?

Hazy Dave: The list price is $1495, last I heard. The discounts will, of course, be up to individual dealer decisions. Usually it takes a few months for things to settle before good discounts creep into the market.

Question: what are the advantages of the 2000 over the 1000

Hazy Dave: The best reason for having a 2000 over a 1000 is that you can place all of your expansion things inside the system unit. A Genlock, a hard disk & controller, 3 drives, 8 megs of memory, a frame grabber, a bridge card (side car), and a 68020 coprocessor board could all go inside, and you'd still have some slots free. The system software is 1.2, just as for the A1000.

Question: what is the difference between C-64 BASIC and AMIGA 2000 BASIC?

Hazy Dave: How about "Day and Night"? Amiga BASIC is an enhanced version of Microsoft BASIC. It works without line numbers, it can have named labels, named subroutines with local variables, and it can access Amiga system libraries, so it can call any routine that C language can call. Its very flexible.

Question: What options at what price are available

Hazy Dave: Current plans are for Commodore to sell a 2 meg board, a hard drive controller board (2 ST-506 and 5 SCSI devices can be controlled by 1 card), the XT compatible PC Bridge card, an internal GenLock card. They've shown a prototype 8 meg card that's working just fine, but currently too expensive to sell just yet. They've also announced plans for a 68020 coprocessor board. I don't know the official list prices of any of these yet.

Question: what is the difference between the old Amiga,and the new one?

Hazy Dave: The A2000 has several built in expansion slots, and room for other internal expansion items like disk drives. So instead of paying $500-$1000 or more for an external expansion box, as is common for an A1000, you merely plug in expansion cards. The A2000 has 5 100 pin Amiga expansion slots, 4 PC-AT compatible slots for use with a bridge card, 1 86 pin coprocessor slot for things like 68020s, and 1 video expansion slot for things like Genlocks.

Question: When will the 2000 be released; also when will the boards: 2088 2094 be released? Also prices fro same? when will the 2000 & 500 be available

Hazy Dave: Both the A2000 and A500 are already shipping, at least in small numbers, in Europe. They'll hopefully be available in the US by June. Much of the delay between the two is due to the required FCC certification in the US. The list price of the A2000 is planned to be $1495, the list of the A500 I believe will be at around $649. The 2088 Bridge Card (XT compatible) should be available as soon as the A2000 is, for a list of around $399-$499 I believe (not sure on this one). Discounts usually creep in a month or two after a computer is widely available, if not sooner.

Question: Will the A2000 have .5 or 1 meg on the motherboard?

Hazy Dave: Last plans I've heard called for all A2000s shipped in the US to have 1 meg on the motherboard. Those shipping in Europe currently have 512K on the motherboard and another 512K on an included RAM card.

Question: If the 68020 board is released, will software written for the 68000 run? Will ALL of the Amiga 1000 equipment wor k on the 2000?

Hazy Dave: Yes. All Amiga developers have had, from the beginning, full documentation on what to do to work with future processors, like the 68010 and 68020. The Amiga's Exec detects which processor is installed, and it also looks for the presence of a 68881 math coprocessor. There are a few incompatibilities between the processors, and the Amiga provides a way to make up for these in software. Its possible a few won't properly work, but the vast majority will. As for expansion devices from the A1000, that depends. The serial and parallel connectors on the A2000 have been changed to work with standard cables, so in the case of the parallel port, the "sex" has changed; in the case of the serial connector, a sex change and a few signals are missing (though if you've got a 1680 modem, it works with either machine unmodified). Disk and video connectors are identical, the keyboard connector is a more rugged DIN connector (though the signals are the same), the mouse ports are the same, but recessed enough to cause trouble with a few items (mainly real-time clocks, but a real-time clock is built in anyway). A1000 expansion cards using the old square form factor don't fit in the A2000 system box, though the signals are mostly the same on the 100 pin connector.

Question: What will be the major differences between the A-2000 and the Amiga? What are the major differences between the 1000 and the 2000?

Hazy Dave: Its mainly that the 2000 has built-in expansion slots, while everything on the A1000 must be added externally. While a few signals are available in A2000 slots that you can't get to on the A1000, for the most part an A1000 can be expanded to do most of what an A2000 can do.

Question: Is there software available that takes advantage of medium or hi-res?

Hazy Dave: Just about all the software I've seen runs in medium resolution, and if it runs on the workbench screen, as opposed to a custom screen, than under 1.2 it can very easily be told to run in high resolution by setting the interlace flag in Preferences. Well written programs can be sized to take advantage of the larger workbench screen. About the only thing I've seen running in the lower resolutions are games, 'cause they like to take advantage of the additionaly bit-planes you can get in the low resolution modes.

Question: Is it true that it will be compatible with the IBM?

Hazy Dave: The A2000 motherboard has 4 PC-AT compatible slots. Immediately, these do nothing. If you add a Bridge card, you'll be able to run PC software in an Amiga window, and plug in PC compatible hardware in the remaining 3 PC slots.

Question: Are the Computer-Aided-Design packages planned for it?

Hazy Dave: Well, Commodore isn't in the applications business. But there are already a few CAD programs available -- PCLO, a printed circuit layout package, Aegis Draw and Draw plus, a structured drawing program, Dynamic CAD, another structured drawing program, and LogicWorks, a schematic capture and circuit simulation package.

Question: Will it be necessary to have 2 hard disk controllers to take advantage of a hard disk for both the 2000 and the 2088?

Hazy Dave: Not at all. There's software included with the 2088 to allow an Amiga partition on an IBM hard disk, and they're currently working on software to allow an IBM partition on an Amiga hard disk. The former setup was much easier, as the Amiga's DOS is much more flexible than the IBM's when it comes to handling strange devices.

Question: From what I saw in COMPUTE!'s Gazzette, the Amiga 500 looks better than the 1000. Why call it the 500, and why charge more for the 1000? Why buy a 500 instead of a 1000

Hazy Dave: In what way better? The A1000 has been out for quite a while, and it does offer the user a few advantages. The 1000's detachable keyboard lets you place the monitor on top, to take up less desk space, and all currently available peripherals are for the A1000 right now. The A500 is new technology, designed specifically to cost less then the A1000. Its got a weaker power supply but it does allow 1 meg + real time clock to fit inside the case. As an all-in-one, though, its less comfortable for many folks to use.

Question: What boards will be available?

Hazy Dave: Commodore will be releasing a 2 meg memory board, the PC-XT compatible bridge card, a hard disk controller, an internal Genlock card. Eventually there will probably be a PC-AT compatible bridge card and a 68020 coprocessor card.

Question: Speaking of 'expansion things' is the genlock interface being redesigned to fit inside the A2000? And where would it go - in the dedicated video slot?

Hazy Dave: Yes, there is planned an internally mounting Genlock, and it will fit in the Video slot. Or you can build an extension cable and use the current Genlock (FCC would't like it, though).

Question: how much does it cost???

Hazy Dave: The A2000's supposed to list for $1495, the bridge card for something like $399-$499, and the Paul II :)

Hazy Dave: A500 for around $649. Not sure about anything else.

Question: Is it true that the 2000 can't boot off a hard disk? Also,will C= sell Amiga hard disks?

Hazy Dave: The A2000's software currently doesn't allow booting from a hard disk, though this is likely to change. C-A will be supplying a hard disk controller that'll support ST-506 drives (2 of 'em, these are the IBM PC style) and SCSI drives (I think 5 of 'em, these are used by Mac Plus and some supermicros like Suns sometimes). I don't know if C-A will supply a drive to go with it or not, but that shouldn't matter, the controller and the software for it is the part you need from C-A.

Question: Can the NEC Multi-sync and the SONY Multi-scan be used on the 2000 side as well as the IBM side in all resolutions?

Hazy Dave: Unless you add a PC-side video card (which IS possible), you're always going though the Amiga video display in all modes; IBM is in an Amiga window. If the NEC and Sony can handle NTSC interlace, they'd work in all modes; I'm not familiar with either monitor.

Question: Will we see an 80306 board?

Hazy Dave: There are no current plans for a '386 board. Lets get the '286 board done first. Its certainly a possibility.

Question: What clock speed will the 68020 run at?

Hazy Dave: I'd expect any 68020 board to run at 14.4MHz or faster. A third party vendor, ASDG, has announced plans for a 68020 add-on board that'll go as fast as 25MHz (if you can afford a 25MHz 68020).

Question: What on Earth is a Genlock?????

Hazy Dave: A Genlock is a device that's used to synchronize Amiga video with external video, like from a TV camera, tuner, or VCR. This allow effects like using the Amiga's video for adding titling and other graphics to a scene, just like on you favorite sports or TV news show.

Question: I know this is not about the 2000 but how come commodore doesn't seem to support the 128 as much as they support the amiga

Hazy Dave: Well, so far there hasn't been any interest for new C128 models. I did a few design studies on new C128 models, but marketing wasn't interested. Its basically a marketing issue. As for technical support, its necessary more for the Amiga 'cause the Amiga system was so new, no one knew how to write programs for it. They just seem to be learning right now. The C128 and C64 are still paying most of the bills at CBM right now, and they probably will for some time yet. They've sold over 1 million C128 systems, versus around 150K-200K Amiga systems.

Question: Is it true i have to learn C to use an Amiga?

Hazy Dave: No. You can program an Amiga in C, BASIC, Pascal, 68000 Assembly, Forth, LISP Fortran, and probably a few others. All Amiga systems come with BASIC. Compiled languages like C or Pascal are generally faster and more powerful than interpreted languages like BASIC, though interperted languages are usually easier to write and debug code in.

Question: Also speaking of the bridge card, all the magazines mentioned that an 80286 card is being developed (in addition to the 8088 based card) any more info on this, or anymore rumors to make our hearts beat a little faster?

Hazy Dave: I haven't actually seen the AT bridge card; its being done in Germany, as all of the bridge card development has been so far. Supposedly several prototypes were shown at the BSC meeting last month. They are definately working on one.

Question: How soon will the Westchester 2000's be released?

Hazy Dave: All the US A2000s will be from WC, last I heard. They should be out by June if everything goes OK.

Question: In your opinion, why should I buy an Amiga 2000 instead of an Atari 1040ST?

Hazy Dave: The same reason you should be an A2000 instead of a Fat Mac. The Atari 1040 is a closed box and it runs inferior software. You can't upgrade a 1040ST to 8 megabytes, you can't add a 68020 to a 1040ST, you can't Genlock a 1040ST, and the graphics on the ST series are slow and clumsy (my personal opinion, of course). The A2000 can be expanded to do practically anything.

Question: How much trouble will someone have to go to, to get IBM EGA resolution?

Hazy Dave: I'm not sure of the exact resolution of the EGA, but its very close to an Amiga in 640x400 mode with 4 bit-planes. I know the EGA card can only deliver 16 out of 64 colors. You may have to go into overscan on the Amiga screen to get the horizontal resolution of EGA (is it over 640, I'm not sure offhand). EGA's no trouble, though having the bridge card emulate EGA would probably be kind of slow. I'm informed EGA is 640x350... no big deal then.

Question: Who makes Amiga Basic,Microsoft?

Hazy Dave: Yes. AmigaBASIC is by Microsoft. I understand its an enhancement of their BASIC for the Mac.

Question: Tell me how the multi-tasking works? Does it slow the computer much? how many levels of tasks?

Hazy Dave: Multitasking, in principle, takes very little overhead. You can actually run several programs together, in many cases, nearly as fast as you can run one. Especially on a system like the Amiga. Normal programs spend a long time waiting for things like disk access, keyboard input, and other real-world slow things. In a multitasking system, programs waiting for these go to sleep, not affecting those that are happy running. The only slowdown you'll really notice is if you run several CPU intensive programs simultaneously. There are 256 priority levels of tasks in the Amiga system, though typically all these levels aren't used. The number of tasks is really limited by memory, I've had 50 or so BOXER demos running simultaneously before.

Question: Will it be possible to add a multi- function card to the IBM side and utilize the parrallel and serial ports?

Hazy Dave: Right off, the IBM side could probably use the multi-function card. For the Amiga to be able to use it, you'd need to write an Amiga side driver. There's an Amiga library for talking to Bridge card resources, called janus.library, that would allow you to hook into this card.

Question: isn't gen-lock ,or the side car built in

Hazy Dave: You don't get Genlock or the bridge card built-in, no, they're available options, though. The= capability to use either of these is certainly built in.

Question: Will we ever see the end of interlace mode?

Hazy Dave: No, I hope not. The Amiga IS the only PC around that's NTSC compatible. Its possible that future machines will also have a non-interlaced mode with the resolution of the current interlaced mode, though that will require a video bus that runs twice the current speed.

Question: When will the amiga 2000 be available?

Hazy Dave: I hope the A2000 will be available in the US in June. Its already out in Europe. We have a door prize to award... Scanning the audience... Our prize is the software package HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. And the winner is (Don't PANIC)........ George C!

RJScott: Yeah GEORGE!

Hazy Dave: Congratulations George!

Question: What mechanisms might be in place to allow for upgrades to the Kickstart ROMs (should they undergo any major changes) Are there hooks in it to allow for extensions that can be loaded into RAM, or would the ROMs have to be replaced?

Hazy Dave: There's always been a feature in 1.2, called ROMTAGS in RAM, which is essentially this.. upon system startup, the Exec program checks certain RAM areas for any resident libraries that are newer than those in ROM. If found, these are used. There are other ways of upgrading individual things. For instance, the system function SetFunction() can be used to replace individual system calls; that what CHeath's FastFonts does, via replacement of the Text() function. Of course, any complely new system (a full upgrade, like 1.2) would be available on a new ROM. Its only 1 ROM, after all, not such a big deal to replace.

Question: will the 2000 run dos 2.3 and higher?

Hazy Dave: I think the Bridge Card will be shipped with a version of MS-DOS 3.2, the same thing used on the Commodore PC-10 and PC-20. Overall, it appears to be very PC compatible, and shouldn't have any trouble running new or old MessyDOS.

Question: Will it ever be possible for the AMIGA side to share RAM w/ the IBM side?

Hazy Dave: Well, I suppose you could use IBM side RAM as a RAM disk or something, but its not directly addressable, other than the 128K of RAM shared between the two sides in the Bridge Card. The PC side can only handle 640K anyway, not even worth worrying about when the minimal Amiga side has 1 meg and can be expanded up to a total of 9 megs very easily.

Question: How much memory will the A2286 have?

Hazy Dave: I don't really know. I'd imagine the Bridge Card would have at least 512K system RAM, maybe 640K and hopefully the shared area will be bigger, to support an EGA emulation, though I know of no specifics on it. The 2286 will be tough enough trying to fit a full PC-AT on one card, there won't be a whole lot of room left over for memory beyond 640K, which the current IBM OS can't use anyway.

Question: Do you think IBM's new PC system will have much (if any) effect on the Amiga, or it's PC compatibility?

Hazy Dave: No. We just got the new one in, a Personal System 30, with color monitor and a 20 meg hard drive all for over $3000. This new machine has 3 PC-XT slots, non-standard hard disk interface, and non-standard video interface. The video was very sharp, but still quite slow as compared to the Amiga.

Question: Is there a timing problem between the IBM and the Amiga?

Hazy Dave: Not a timing problem, though there are timing differences -- the Amiga bus runs at 7.16 MHz with no required wait states, the PC bus (XT style) runs at 4.77 MHz with 1 required wait state (for I/O devices, at least). The only contention possible is when accessing the shared 128K of RAM, and the custom interface chips take care of arbitrating this, so there's no trouble with it.

Question: Does the A2000 have a built-in modem?

Hazy Dave: No, the A2000 has a built-in serial port that's capable of running at a couple hundred K baud. The problem with built-in modems is that this year's fast modem is next year's slow modem.

Question: This may be a little out of line, but do all programs that can take digitized pictures require the GenLock peripheral to operate?

Hazy Dave: Absolutely not. A video input device, like a digitizer or frame grabber (which is essentially a real-time digitizer) is necessary to CREATE a digitized picture from a video input. A Genlock device is necessary to overlay Amiga video output on top of video from another video source, such as a VCR, Video Camera, or another Amiga's video output. To display a digitized image, you need some kind of display program, usually just a public domain IFF viewer.

Question: According to the BYTE article, the 500 and 2000 no longer have seperate busses for FASTmem & CHIPmem, how much of a slow-down could this cause between a program run on a 1000, or a 500/2000.

Hazy Dave: As far as I recall, that's not what the BYTE article said. But in any case, that's NOT TRUE. There most certainly are two busses, the video bus, on which the CHIP memory resides, and the 68000 bus, on which most expansion memory resides. I say most, because it is possible to put non-chip memory on the video memory bus. The add-on 512K card for the A500 does exactly this. It makes the additional memory very low cost, at the expense of some speed. Note that this won't make your machine any slower than a stock A1000, only that the internal 512K memory expansion won't give you a speed INCREASE, while an external memory expansion MAY, depending on any wait states it introduces.

Question: Does the Amiga 2000 use CPM?

Hazy Dave: No. CP/M (CP/M-80, CP/M Plus) is an 8-bit operating system, often used on the C128. There are also non-compatible versions for the 8086 family (CP/M-86) and the 68000 family (CP/M-68K).

Question: How does the A2000 compare to the new Mac's just announced.

Hazy Dave: Let's see.... Mac SE-> 1 expansion slot, monochrome graphics, 7.86MHz 68000, $2500? Mac II-> 6 expansion slots, no built-in graphics (color and monochrome available, takes up 1 slot ), 15.6-something 68020, 68881, $6000. A2000->9 expansion slots (several types), 7.16MHz 68000, blitter, graphics coprocessor, built-in color graphics, IBM capability, $2000. I think it stacks up very well.

Question: will the 2088 bridge work with the 500?

Hazy Dave: I haven't tried it, but with an external expansion box on an A500 it should work just fine.

Question: What is the memory limit (expansion)

Hazy Dave: Normal expansion is limited to 8 megabytes, for a total of 9 megabytes. A 68020 card could handle nearly 4 gigabytes of memory, though the memory added beyond the first 8 megabytes won't be autoconfigured, though it could be fast 32 bit memory. The OS will support the 4 gigabyte address space of the 68020.

Question: If the A2000 is shipped with 1 meg on the motherboard, will the 512K other than the chip-RAM be FAST RAM?

Hazy Dave: It'll be memory on the video bus, so it looks to software like Fast RAM, but it is subject to video bus memory contention. There are very good reasons for this design, only part of which is cost, though I really can't go into them right now.

Question: Does the 1750 have to be grounded to the 128 thru the spring clips or can it be put on an expander board using a ribbon cable?

Hazy Dave: The main reason for the grounding clips was for FCC reasons, but I wouldn't recommend using a ribbon cable; the cable will very likely result in enough interference with the expansion bus signals to render the RAM subject to many glitches.

Question: Do you feel that 68000-family computers will surpass 8088-family computers in usage in the near future?

Hazy Dave: I feel the 68000 family is far superior in design than the 8088, but there are so many PC clones, it will be quite some time, if ever, before the 68000 surpasses the 8088. Of course, there are more Z-80s than 8088s in use thoughout the world, though I know of few folks who doubt that the 8088 is a least somewhat more powerful than the Z-80.

Question: With the introduction of the Mac II, and the new IBM PS/2 (and their improved graphics capabilities), what is being done at Commodore-Amiga to keep ahead of the pack in the way of graphics quality and performance?

Hazy Dave: Neither of the machines you mention are using blitters or graphics coprocessors; they're still driving all their video with the native processor. So in some ways they haven't caught up yet. What they are offering are more colors and more bit-planes. Neither can display as many simultaneous colors as HAM mode. Anyway, we're well aware of what's out there, and certainly not planning to sit still.

Question: What printer do you suggest for the 2000 preferably color graphics "dot matrix"?

Hazy Dave: I've never used a color printer. The Diablo ink jet color printer they've got in the Technical support area produces EXCELLENT color images, but its expensive and requires lots of maintainence The OKImate-20 produces good looking images, though its not a very good general purpose printer, it eats ribbons. I'd look at the color Epson, but basically you've got to find one that produces output you're happy with.

Question: Does all software take advantage of the 68881?

Hazy Dave: It can, though it depends. There are several Amiga libraries that provide floating point operations, even simple addition and multiplication that a language can use as a primitive. Any application using any of the libraries will use the 68881 when installed with a 68881 version of that library. However, the IEEE libraries, which work most efficiently with the '881, are slower in normal usage than the FFP libraries. So there are some performance choices to be made.

Question: Have any more instruments or music chips been added to the new Amiga

Hazy Dave: The same four D-A voices are in the A2000, A1000, and A500. There's no necessary relationship between these voices and any "instruments". Any particular instrument you play though the Amiga is merely a synthesized or digitized waveform, and any number of waveforms can be created, limited by memory, of course. While the 4 D-A channels are often configured as 4 "voices", its fully possible to create 8, 12, or maybe more individual "voices" with these channels, based on how much programming is done. Recall that your CD player only has 2 somewhat similar channels.

Question: Will we see a 2400baud 100% Hayes compatible modem from C=?

RJScott: &

Hazy Dave: I don't know of any in the immediate works.

Question: Can you use a RAM Disk card in place of a hard disk, and still partition the mem ory for use with the PC and Amiga?

Hazy Dave: I think much of that would depend on the PC software that drives the RAM Disk card. If you could make the PC RAM Disk look to the Amiga just like a PC hard disk, it would work right off. Other- wise, it might be necessary to write an Amiga-side driver for the PC RAM Disk, assuming the PC side software would even let you create multiple RAM Disk partitions. I'd rather use an Amiga side RAM disk....

Question: How do you think the Amiga 500 will affect the Commodore C128?

Hazy Dave: Who knows. It might drive the price of the C128 down if it starts cutting into Amiga sales. As long as they're buying C128s and A500s instead of Atari STs, PClones, and Macs, I'm happy.

Question: If someone had several hundred dollars invested in a 1000 and hardware, would you recommend buying a 2000?

Hazy Dave: It all depends. If they're happy with their 1000 system, don't bother. If they have no 1000 add ons and particularly want A2000 functionality, they could get an A2000, or they could get a 2000 compatible expansion box that some of the 3rd parties are likely to offer. There's nothing wrong with the A1000!

Question: Are the 2000 & 500 on schedule?

Hazy Dave: Pretty much so. Both are already shipping in Europe.

Question: Will Commodore be releasing an expansion system to bring the A1000 up to the A2000 (slots and such)?

Hazy Dave: Commodore isn't. I believe CSA already sells one, and ASDG very well may produce one in the not too distant future. There's also some question on the CBM A1000 to A2000 upgrade plan that has been hinted at; unfortunately, no details are known of this yet.

Question: You mentioned the PC board is "XT"...Do you mean two speeds 4.77/7.14 or will it be more "PC" at single speed 4.77 MHZ!

Hazy Dave: IBM PC-XT IS ONLY 4.77 MHz. Some clones run faster, but that's NOT XT.

Question: I have no interest in IBM whatsoever... Just what kind of individuals or organizations will be attracted to this, to me,curious machine?..I assume the marketing people at Commodore did their homework...It's the 500 for me

Hazy Dave: The 500 probably appeals to the type of folks who buy C64s, C128s, maybe Atari STs. The A2000 is more for power users, folks who know right off all the stuff they want to add on. The PC Bridge is just one thing you can plug in, its certainly not required (I don't use it, I've got memory and HD controllers in my A2000s).

Question: Will problems named in the March BYTE article, such as no flashing characters on the IBM side and no Microsoft mouse emulation be corrected?

Hazy Dave: I'm not sure about the flashing characters, but there's definately work being done on Microsoft mouse emulation. It doesn't look very difficult. I tried a real Microsoft mouse today, and it worked just fine, too.

Question: What market is the A-2000 aimed at.

Hazy Dave: Power users, and businesses; in some places, you're REQUIRED to order only IBM compatibles and many folks there would much rather have a multitasking 68000 system. There used to be a 68000 based motherboard you could replace your PC motherboard with for just such occasions (don't recall who made it).

Question: Can the A2000 use MS-DOS?

Hazy Dave: With the XT Bridge card installed, you can run MS-DOS or PC-DOS in an Amiga window.

Question: Will Amiga be sold at local chains (ie. Toys R Us)? Or only at specialty stores?

Hazy Dave: A2000 is only specialty stores; the A500 will be in specialty stores and maybe some department stores, but I don't think they're planning to sell it in Toys-R-Us or K-Mart.

Question: What truth to the rumor the 500 won't hit the shelves and the 1000 will have a price drop?

Hazy Dave: The A1000 is constantly dropping in price. The A500 WILL hit the stores, though, probably in June.

Question: Will there be any problems 'porting over' music software, such as Digidesign SOFTSYNTH...currently written for the Macintosh..(which I would'nt buy)?

Hazy Dave: You mean, porting music software? It should be a piece of cake -- the Mac makes music with 1 non-DMA D-A channel, the Amiga (all of 'em) have 4 D-A channels that can be DMA driven (very little to no CPU time is spent driving the sound).

Question: If the A1000 is to continue being sold, does C= Amiga have any plans to put Kickstart 1.2 in ROM on that machine?

Hazy Dave: The current ROM for the A2000 and A500 won't fit in the A1000. If the A1000 continues to be very popular, it could be modified to use this ROM, simple enough to do.

Comment: I hope the Amiga flies...I assume that there are people who want an Amiga and an IBM in the same box...Commodore doesn't need another C-16/Plus 4 turkey.

Hazy Dave: True. Don't tell Hungary, though, the PLUS/4 is their official school computer, and its still made for them :-)

Question: hey, how much will it cost man???

Hazy Dave: ONE MORE TIME-- A2000 list is about $1495, A500 list is about $649, XT Bridge Card is somewhere around $399-$499, I don't have any idea what other things will cost. List prices don't usually mean that much anyway once the machines are readily available.

Question: Can any SCSI drive designed to be used with the Mac Plus be used with the Amiga (some of these are really coming down in price, and seem to be quite attractive)

Hazy Dave: Absolutely. The hard disk controlled from Commodore can support at least 5 SCSI devices, and the hard disk controller software will specifically handle SCSI hard drives. The controller card has both an internal post connector for internal SCSI drives and an external Mac compatible 25 (?) pin SCSI connector. Also, SCSI drives are typically available in larger size than ST-506, and they can run twice as fast.

Comment: Hmmm.... ASDG 25MHz 68020 + the Amiga's super graphics = Mac II killer! Commodore, get your marketing right this time! :D

Hazy Dave: Definately need marketing support!

Question: What is the Max K availble and how much does the Drive support?

Hazy Dave: I know you can get something like 700meg SCSI drives, though they're very expensive. The Amiga DOS supports drives in excess of 4096 gigabytes, though individual files can't be larger than 4 gigabytes in length.

Question: Can you access the extra 64k on the 128 from 64 mode, the way you can access the 80 column screen controller?

Hazy Dave: Absolutely not. The MMU is shut off in C64 mode, and its required to bank the memory.

Question: Dave, the C=128D should be on sale in USA in June,this is a diff. model from the C=128

Hazy Dave: Yes, the C128D is essentially a C128 with integral 1571 and 64K of video RAM, all in a box with a detachable keyboard, about the size of an Amiga 1000.

Question: How many disk drives does the 2000 support, I have heard 4 and 5.

Hazy Dave: The built-in floppy controller handles 4 floppies, 2 internal, 2 external. The Hard Disk controller can control at least 7 hard disk drives of various types.

Question: can amiga run commodore 64 softare?

Hazy Dave: No. There are rumors of a C64 emulator for the Amiga, though one has yet to surface.

Question: Dave, can i make my TV 40/80 colums?? Do i need any special equipment?

Hazy Dave: There's nothing much you can do with your TV. The main problem is video resolution; for a clear 80 columns you really need a monitor with twice the normal TV resolution. A video monitor like the 1702, with normal TV resolution, CAN display 80 columns, though its very fuzzy. You loose even more resolution with a TV because you've got to feed the video signal in via an RF modulator which cuts the bandwith more. A direct video input would sharpen your 40 column display and certainly improve 80 columns, yet it may not make 80 columns pleasantly readable.

Question: Does Atari hate Commodore? They could come up with some of the greatest arcade software for the Amiga, but they seem to be sticking with older games such as Pac Man.

Hazy Dave: Actually, as I understand it, the Arcade branch of Atari is a separate company now from the computers-and-home-video-games branch that Jack T. bought. I'm not sure who's liscencing Atari video games now, but I think a few of the Atari game (isn't Marble Madness owned by Atari) are coming out in Amiga form gradually.

Question: How many colors are available for use,

Hazy Dave: 4096, depending on graphics mode. Hi-Res, 640x200 or 640x400 give you 16 out of 4096, max. Lo-Res, 320x200 or 320x400, gives you normally a max of 32 out of 4096. A special lores mode, Extra Halfbright, gives a limited version of 64 out of 4096 (2 brightness levels each of 32 separate colors). Another special lores mode, Hold And Modify, gives you all 4096 colors at once but each color displayed is based on the previous color in most cases.

Comment: I know the Amiga is fast, but my A1000, even with the 2nd drive, it doesn't seem to be running to it's fullest. Perhaps it would help if I had some statistics.

Hazy Dave: Not sure what you want from statistics. The slowest disk benchmark is via the Dir command, and that's a function of the organization of the directory structure. The Amiga is quite fast at loading things and moving graphics around.

Comment: Since all IBM software that supports the EGA must have an EGA driver, couldn't a driver be written that would port the EGA commands over to a Janus library function that would do the correct Amiga display? Hmm... I think you and CBM have a project to work on now (as if you didn't have enough already:)

Hazy Dave: Well, I'm a hardware guy. I'm not sure if an EGA driver would work on the current Bridge card or not. The current card does monochrome and CGA, but much of that capability is based in hardware. That's because most PC progams render directly to the PC screen, so in order for the Amiga to properly display the PC screen, some hardware is present which translates CGA memory image to Amiga bitmap image, allowing the Amiga to emulate the CGA reasonably well. While the normal Amiga hardware is more than adequate for displaying any EGA image, I'm not too sure the bridge hardware is sophisticated enough, yet. Fortunately, most PC software works with CGA.

Question: I have a C64, and am studying programming. I want to upgrade my system. Can you tell me what the new Amiga can offer that the C128 can't? (I'm going for an AAS Degree in computer technology.)

Hazy Dave: The new Amiga has a 68000 uP (32 bits internal, 16 bits external) versus the C128s 8502 (8 bits internal and external). The Amiga can handle much more memory, up to 9 megabytes, and it has faster drives, and is generally faster itself. And it has much better graphics. The C128 isn't as expandable, though it does have available for many of the more popular programming languages, like FORTH, C, LOGO, Pascal, Cobol, etc, and they'll cost less, as will most software, in C128 format rather than Amiga format. I don't expect you'll find a useable LISP for the C128. The C128 has far more software that'll run on it, some of which is more mature than similar Amiga software. And a C128 system will still be less money then the new Amiga 500. It really depends on what you're looking for and how much you want to spend.

Question: Are there CDROMs in use, and if so, are there any games available for them?

Hazy Dave: There aren't many CD ROMs being used, though many manufacturers are looking at them. I'm not sure what you mean by "games available for them". If you're looking for a game on a CD ROM, it would be some game; that's over 500 megabytes of storage we're talking about. The most popular CD ROM application is an encyclopedia that's cross indexed, so you can ask it things like "List all articles about CATs" or something similar. And that's the last question, it appears.

Hazy Dave: Oh well. Its late, anyway.

RJScott: Yep, that it is. Thanks a million Dave.