compt.sys.editor.desk

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    compt.sys.editor.desk                          By:  Jason Compton 
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Brrrr.

The February chill descends upon us.  Retail sales traditionally are
poorest this month, so try to keep your favorite commercial developer in
good spirits.

The rest of the market plods on.  Cheaper RAM is the biggest substantial
news in the pipelines, a lot of the rest of it is the same old posturing.

The Amiga hurtles towards its first anniversary with Escom, and Commodore's
second "deathday."

Even as we speak, independent engineering firms are at work on the Amiga,
re-engineering the chipset and trying to come up with a new "stopgap"
machine to show off at Cebit in March.

AT won't talk much about this machine except to say it will be AGA and will
have Zorro slots.  The "A1200+" will not be built, however.

The A1200 Surfer pack is being test-marketed in Germany, and we're looking
forward to receiving our own to review in the near future.  AT may just
have put together a price/performance package that can sell in appreciable
numbers.

But for now it's a waiting game.  If you like, say a few words of
remembrance for the soon to be devoured Atari Corp, which, like Commodore,
pioneered so much but in the end will wind up just like Commodore--a brand
name for a mainstream PC company. 

So enjoy what you have.  The upcoming CeBit and World of Amiga UK shows
should prove quite telling.  No more "we're just getting started" excuses
for AT.  It'll be cards-on-the-table time for them and for the industry,
and we're all waiting to see the ace the AT boys have been, hopefully,
working on for a while.

Jason

P.S.  On a completely unrelated note, I've been lucky enough to have a
chance to sit down at the keyboard of a Draco recently.  The incredible
speed of this thing has to be seen to be believed.  It really makes you
appreciate the fact that the 060 is indeed available and that, with any
luck, we'll be seeing PowerPC availability for the Amiga in due time.  The
Draco certainly isn't priced for everyone, but is a pretty righteous Amiga
software performer if you throw the right tasks at it.

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