More than a toy but no bargain

Product Review

More than aToy butNo Bargain

By Mike Burgard Amiga 3000UX offers SVR4 on an outdatedchip without the Amiga PC's capabilities

ommodore is hardly a nameyou expect to hear bandiedabout in the UNX worksta-tion market. Yet. Commodore

is positioning its Amiga 30001X-stockedwith UND( System V Release 4 fromAT&T, Open Look, and Ethernet suPport-as a niche workstation alternative.Despite the good intentions, Commodoremisses the markwith the Amiga 3000UXbecause of its small, 14inch colormonitotlimited software supply, poor price/per-formance, and no UNX-toDOS utilities.

Commodore makes it clear that theAmiga is not going head to head withIBM, Hewlett-Packard, or high-end SunMicrosystems engineering worksta-tions. Instead, Amiga is targeting indi-vidual users, the university market, andbecause of its port of SVR4, the "large

quantity development market." PaulCaulkin, UND( programs manager forCommodore explains: 'TV'e are position-ing ttre Amiga 3000tX for the large in-house developer thatwould rather havestandalone machines than terminals oneach developer's desk."

As a billion-dollar company, Commo-dore has a large network of users anddealers. But to compete in the lower endof the UND( workstation market, Com-modore has to offer a sizable price breakor solid valueadded features: the Amiga3000UX offers neither. The available sys-temconfigurations are too expensive andthe standout third-party products nor-mally associated with the Amiga PC-narnely jazzy graphics and strong videosupport-are not available for the UNXAmiga. Commodore promises that multi-media products will be available n 1992.

The base system comes with a 100-

megabyte hard drive and Ethernet card,but no monitor, and costs $4,998. Al-though this price seems reasonable,UNXusers need more than the base system to satisf routine disk and monitor requirements. They need the 3000IXG,the reviewed plafform, which had a 20Gmegabyte hard dish Ethernet Card, TIGAgraphics adaptor, multiscanning monitor,and a price tag of. $7 ,773. Compare thisagainst Sun's $6,995 SPARCstation IPCwith its lGinch color monitor, 207 megtbytes of disb eight megabytes of memory, and 3 1/2-inch floppy drive.

Compact and QuietThe Amiga 3000UX is an attractive ma-chine. The system box is compact, cleanb

designed, and resembles a small-foo@rintPC jammed to tlregills.Inside the 2Gpoundsystem box are four proprietary expan-sion slots, two floppy drive bays, up to 18megabytes of RAM, a power suPPlY, anda 68030 processor. The Amiga also supports 100 to 400 megabytes ofhard disk.

The location of the floppy bays represents efficient use of space, but makesthe Amiga 30001X a difficult machine towork with at the board level. When ourtest unit died, the technician had quite achore getting at the system memory.The fan and hard disk maintain an ex-tremely low ambient noise level in com-parison to any machine-UNX or DOS.

Ins ide the Amiga is a Motoro laMC68030 32-bit processor running at 25

Commodore'sentry into the

UNIX workstaiionmarket, the Amiga

3000UX, comeswith AT&T UNIX

SVR4, Open Look,and Ethernet

support-but itdoesn't have thespeed, software,or UNIX-Io-DOS

utilities that mostusers demand.

UNIXWORLD DECEMBER 1991 75

Commodore's300/0ux

MHz and a 68882 math coprocessor' The

dsii;o h.*. tlte Amiga one whole gener-

ii* U"fti"a the Nextstation with the

9:*gh?*:tr":,fff, l.:;: u;13 *::,tiil;'il'iil; ;oir.' ut*'*gt' gu"l u r1,'1.".'lio."..ot wouldn't overshadow the

iirtix n igu't other Problems'"'rit" G-ig" comes standard with ei-

ther five or nine megaoytes of on-board

ilil;;; r'i; ;og .."gff :filil ffil;::$,"t:[it{#,':'#-",;:mr;iti;;;;;J graPhics Performance' sepa-

rate from this are rour megaby'tes of ad-

dil"";i memory for ooerating system

li#tl*J:',;ittHtlJ:"ffi :able to 16 megabYtes'

The Return of Zorro2

Four expansion slots are vertically'r""","d'i"

itte Amiga' each capable o{

iiijiii'gi r.'l size card' Two of the slots

ioulf"-ut fSetompatible slots' but all four

i".""c""ri["aoreis- proprietary Amiga

Uii;iiil;; which uses a loGPin slot

:x.ln nir*'Ji"'i: ffi''.':l 5.n6lift;;';iZ;;'o-comPatible boards' The

,lul"* tu.ftine cameruith a thin Ether-

net card ($331) ano a r.lGA high+esr-r1u-

6rt*lh*s l:fffl"il x "JJ lli;"*::*tlr ;i:f t1*"':'i"'.:', *rniifit-".o"4, 1OO-megabyte Quantum'

ihi;;il;i; both quiet and quick' The

.t""a"ta lOO-megabl'te drive is barely

ifffi t, u"tuuti tt'"'vstem' fi les alone

.on.urn" more than 70 megabytes' Sen-

;H;;;k';;qu ires th e ontional,2o^o;

F'i**;fl :hi:['"$fi ]t";;;11::"'fi;lptiJn;i'scsr tuP" drive sits in a

.,""a^f""t *it that uses standard 15G

ue*r,: #i: t*l4u;liff i'lrlifrI"rl. t" an unfriendlv {esisn' if Jol:;;";;i"" i s. c 9nnqc,19$,,l,frtiiultltuined on or the hard dnitil;;; adaitonat SCSI devices' a

lin:"j:1,"mil:ii#*:":.'"'#il!*;;[";;;;;ilJ with,the review unit

ilft';;;fi. be desired' lts size makes

i";,: S u m::#?'$$i;l frTttr#r[.." Itir." "part during shiPment and

th&;;;;;";d was missing' Th" t:t::i

l"!il"a ," have the jitters because tne

aj.of "t-*.ttionallY wavered'

.":mt}[i:;.*;r;ffr;i&:::J:i'::H:Ti#ff fr il:'"::Y-':i;?".j

workout. A monochrome monitor with

t"";;ft i" Jisplav 1008bv 800 pixels is

.",,ii"tiJr"t the same price as the color

ffi;il;. A-high-resolution TIGA board

Jiri'i6l+uv 218 resolulion is also an oP

i i"". Utf"tttnately' the TIGA did not

;;;i;th the sYstem' so vou must have

fiX'*"^ir"i.' wtrictr again-increases the

."i^"ittt" e.ga, especially in compan-

.on,o " Sun or Next machine'-'ir,"""d+-t"t keyboard is also a weak

r inr.. r-rl"i"'u': 1"- 9e*T3:* J,-#i;PsDn, Home, or tlnc j

ur"""onrv jo runction keys' ihe feel of the

[*n"itA is "middle o{ the road": it has

with MSDOS because AmigaDO-S is a

r" Jriiu.r.ing operating system createo

.^*.in."frv T"rihe Amigu' A coprocess-

#;;;J:such as a $754 BridgeBoard

;";d;;"dd-in^board' must be Pur-

.#;d i; t"" DoS aPPlications' Com-

;;il;; the Amiqai Problems' You

U;";';;-" A*igaDbS and UN X simul-

ffi;;;M ;;. i6*rere a DoS emulator'

ii l;;i i;; l ine is that the Amiga

iob'otx it ;;t the machine.Y"Y YTI^I.".Uiti"g DOS and-UNX is your goat'-"e.

i"i.s"rt*are for the Amiga'-w-e

were able to get a coPY of EmPretls*

*iii,'t OeNaS' but other products ano

inJoimation are slo.w in coming' uom-

*"d"t" p-"ided a list of approimately.

;il;;;ft ;PPlications' but the onrY

well-known nalnes were Oracle (DBMS

or"at"."l. q""dratron (Cliq)' and auulitv

5"rt*# i""aucts @xclaim)' N oticeably

ii""r,t *"t" multimedia' engineering'

lia i.i"ntiri. applications', odv :::"::

c0ilfAerlilF0

Amiga 3000uxC omnodo re I nte r nattonat

l'111[i!11"h,**215-431-9100

:il #Hi;[.i"J in "*Ptoring and us-i"i svni'*ru not be bothered bY thesriall number of aPPlicabons'

*ffiYli'ifJ,l.i'ffiflilii'illl; ontheotherHand

ffil'?;ruftrttffifiJilr fff;,t"Jl'.fl.iT.trJb*T,F$:F:1,"7i;'#il

'""'" iil";;G;t"meswithasmallsetotuttt-ities built into the t'Ul-most useful is the

',iiSlnHl3l,1fi'flt!figti:'ir"*-"-g"'*t'ii*Xlruln1o;:$;1g:['-"'Y,ilnt[;li]ll ffi#"xis'Jil"["#;';;;mewhenfH,l#ffiKl;v

ui" oa03o hu::nlift';i";'T'%Ttff*:,

;Rrcffi ,sra I' zoqrygflvtg laii !l{

's\;;i4 .;o;;* virtual':'":T-'1:

ill;Tl#ilTEffiill3jri'':f, 'n]imsjln:*:#.;.':Y"3riltill''.l,,i,ii;m """

[T*"X,".tX*ffi'#.�*u*ft-]1,:[iwARnAilrrt ffipu't'und"'ui" :""t#il;d;;n-' k Windo*ti:'qY:"::

iffi#;ffi tual screens in,?'T-sl::f 'suPPoBr 1tlfuftJ?,',d:ti.flfJJilllilI H::iil:;'"i"d;;+trl{:*^::*"0' '

riii$',ltgg,'r,yi"'li:ffi: ffil?i:"m4"'1t1ilnxp;ffi;*:"'sry#m""3;&*#i:

a mushy feel, and lacks a tactile click-or --m:ffits,HT;:l',ittTtffi#**v JiJr. r-ittat matter' oir *it'tl,noio.itrome Nextstation for

SVR4: Prodigy or Problem? $a'gsf''rl iit applications development

one reason commodor" is so high.on i"rt**" tit"i vJri want. commodore has

rh e Ami ga is its ab.r t rry- t J ; ;- 3iv R4' *:*;t X"t"f"itJ"'"mll'y*ff;f *Commodore states tnat amiga UNX "is

Tl-13,;;;":;5;,".t*o.t .. .

::#.,?hlill[l* ll*tql,l Ui3:i, :*;li;;k;i provides bo'�h'�hin and

one of the nrst macnrneJ*'"it'"' iwa H'J;iffi"i,t#[4nnl"'tt6ttt:

5*Xfrj ffiffi'rgx!$1*;$:';5 iLft:: ti."""".ti"e lei.l"^*o'k i' usystem sores o,",ouafl"i"'iii"irNil ill*ml$mHo{:.'"'n""'tH""HY*ofhfdiii

ir":::gll'_Hi uo* rast is rast?

m*fmtg*iffl+::ft";;n$'n:rmm:ili:#"'s'-$ttJ8 lf,l

math coprocessor, and the one mega-

ilvt" "i"ia"" RAM contribute to making

the machine responsive. but Commo-

dore has deliberately tried not to posl-

;ilth" A-igu in markets in which

o"iio.tnu"." ii the major evaluation cri-

i ; ; i ; . H"*"ver , SPECmarks have

shown even the 68040 processor to be

.io*"i tft* ttte SPARC chip in the IPC'"'ih;i. i; doubt that the Amiga is

ouick enough to handle common tasKs.'".tt u. aoltment creation and educa-il;;;;. our exPerience with scroll-i"g'i'o.u-""tt and using X utiliti"s t9!l:us-ttte nmiga is on par with a slow 386ilu.t in" ru*nning SCO Open Desldop'

Standout Service and SuPPort

The Amiga was truly easy to set rrp andg"liu*itg. A color brochure leads you

throush the cable connections and set-

uo.t"-p. in an almost simplistic manner'

Ifitft utt the operating system softwarep."1oad"d, you can have a login prompt

*iittir "t.i,it 30 minutes of opening- the

b;;;. Th" plug-and-plav aspects of the

Amiga make it attractive to many users'

T6e Amiga also comes with an out-

standing support policy: if anything goes

*r"ne *ith tlre machine in the first year'

6o*itoaot" *itt fix it free of charge' We

;;;;;bb i" have a technician uP in the

Uootao.tt of Montana within 24 hours

when a set of RAM chiPs died'"'iiocumentation stands out from the

tvpi.uf. Three small manuals take you

G"-modorlehasntt given us a

convincing reason

as to why it Put UNIX

on the Amiga

s#ffiHf,'',i?.'^Y,; 1,il'?i"ti T; i'!3?:ir'i--tt1'f t!'"'o'o',1",301-829-1623 (Fax)

-

through installing. learning, and using

Rmiei UNX. The small-format manuals

."*? *itt spiral binding, detailed in-

rttu.ti""., and frequent illustrations'

ftt" *uin efe.f UND( manual Pages;;; ";il and can be accessed with the

r.n.ornrnund. Commodore does not

ofter a full SVR4 documentation set'""iit" e*i!" draws a fiercelv loval fol-

lowins in the PC world and we can see

iire cnliact".istics of a soundlybuilt ma-

Itrl".bui"t -d small, the Amiga packs

"loiof.vstem into a tight space and sup

o"ii.-it *ittt one of the best service

suarantees in the business'--f* to, Commodore hasn't given us

a convincing reason as to whY it Putffiii on trt" I*ist And we haven't a clue'

iil"emiga eO00lXis a soundhardwareUo* toofing for a home' At its present

rtf." fi o-t*iaes no attraction compared

io-in"*p"n.iue Suns, SPARC clones' or

l""n G*tttutions. The lack of multime

;i;;;ftd; also leaves the Amigahol-

i"*. gtt if you like a mystery andare

*iffirgt" ri;k $7,000, give it a trY' I

Editor<t-lnrge Mike Burgard is a regular-riaiewerforlJND(woRLD and a data sys'

tems information managerfor a clrnmer'

cial Printing com'PanY in Montana'

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