@Kronos

Quote:

Sure, adding a blitter to the ST would have required a new motherboard, which they eventually did with the STe. This move would have really segmented the market (assuming it would have been widely used) leaving the early adopters behind as the chip couldn't be retrofitted.

Atari ST was released in June 1985.

If 1986 Atari ST config had a Blitter, then it would build up an install base that would exceed 1985's Blitter-less Atari ST install base and tilt 3rd party development towards the Atari ST with a Blitter. This is about building the momentum for baseline hardware specification change. Atari STE's 1989 #metoo release was too late to make a difference when Amiga 500 Rev6A had momentum in Amiga's golden years of 1990 and 1991.

The same lessons for Amiga OCS/ECS transition into AGA, NES transition SNES and 'etc'.

SNES transition started in 1990 and had the larger install base advantage in 1992 when AGA Amiga was "ground zero" with AGA install base buildup from Q4 1992. 3rd party developers gravitate towards the larger install base.

PC VGA (with VGA clones started in late 1987) was building its install base from 1987 and crossed the 50 percent annual sales in 1989 which prepared for the 1990's Windows 3.0/MS Office and Wing Commander double nuke drops. Many earlier 32-bit PC clones can join the VGA/SVGA camp.

The gaming PC's fast VGA clone install base was prepared against SNES's momentum.

------------------------------
A modern example, AMD64 was released in October 2003 with mostly 32-bit Windows XP installs, but it quickly started the X64 hardware install base build-up, followed by Windows XP X64 release, Crysis X64 build release, and ATI/NVIDIA X64 driver support, hence it's game over for Itanium (IA-64). "Only the paranoid survive" Intel has a backup X64 (EMT64) CPU development via the Yamhill project i.e. Pentium IV with EMT64. Itanium and PowerPC 970 attempted to gain a foothold during the 64-bit desktop computing transition.

The game-centric AMD K8's superior economics of scale killed Itanium just like NVIDIA's game-centric GeForce superior economics of scale killed SGI.

Wars are won by "good enough" Soviet T34 and Amercian M4 Shermans' tanks with large economies of scale over good quality and fewer in numbers German Tiger I/II tanks. Death by a thousand cuts.

Quote:

The part of ECS that really matters was the 1MB Agnus as it removed the need to produce separate NTSC and PAL versions (for 2MB it was the same die bonded differently). ECS Denise wasn't needed for A500 use cases, I'd go sofar as saying it wasn't needed anywhere (it certainly made no sense on the A3000 with it's FF).

A500 Rev6A's ECS Agnus A 1MB had all the Copper and Blitter improvements from ECS Agnus B 2MB.

A500 Rev6A's ECS Agnus's Copper can trigger productivity mode with OCS Denise i.e test case in PiStorm's discord channel. ECS Denise doesn't need the Copper for its productivity mode.

ECS Denise's original purpose was to counter (#metoo) monochrome Mac 512K/Mac Plus and build up Amiga's business office install base via A500's large economics of scale.

1989 era A500 Rev6A PCB fully supports A3000's ECS Agnus B including 2MB Chip RAM configuration via jumpers by design

The late 1991 A500P's ECS Agnus 2MB has a different pin layout from ECS Agnus A and B.

C= management decided to make ECS Denise a timed exclusive for a limited production run A3000's 1990 release.

There are millions of Macs with stable high-resolution for business vs a few thousand A3000 with Amber/ full ECS, hence Mac's larger install base geared DTP/GUI office market for the win.

A500 Rev6A's golden years of 1989, 1990, and 1991 weren't able to establish stable high-resolution for business in large numbers.

Out of the box, A500 Rev6A supports 512KB Kickstart ROM which is not the case for A500 Rev 5 and Rev 3 i.e. needs PCB bodge wire fixes.

A500 Rev6A's design changes to establish a stable high-resolution for business in large install base numbers weren't used. Somebody at Commodore protected the other platform.

The new Amiga ECS standard in 1992 was too late since ECS's original intent was against monochrome late 1984 Mac 512K and 1986 Mac Plus.

--------------

https://aminet.net/package/util/misc/60HzEmulator
This tool allows dynamic switching between 50Hz (PAL) and 60Hz (NTSC) for all
Amigas, even those without the ECS Agnus. This is done via old-school CIA timer interrupt.

Last edited by Hammer on 28-Jan-2025 at 06:53 AM.
Last edited by Hammer on 28-Jan-2025 at 05:02 AM.
Last edited by Hammer on 28-Jan-2025 at 04:57 AM.

_________________
Amiga 1200 (rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32/RPi CM4/Emu68)
Amiga 500 (rev 6A, ECS, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 4B/Emu68)
Ryzen 9 7950X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB

@Hammer

>1986 Atari ST config had a Blitter

It would have been 50$ more, negating the point of keeping the ST along the MegaST, reducing the whole ST line's sales making it even less significant compared to Amiga, PC or even Mac.
And it would have segmented the market to SW for pre blitter HW and one with.


> endless unrelated "facts" bout ECS Denise

So in short whatever the thoughts were for ECS Denise what was delivered was pointless making the Agnus (1 or 2MB) the only valuable part of ECS.

_________________
- We don't need good ideas, we haven't run out on bad ones yet
- blame Canada

@Kronos

Quote:

It would have been 50$ more, negating the point of keeping the ST along the MegaST, reducing the whole ST line's sales making it even less significant compared to Amiga, PC or even Mac. And it would have segmented the market to SW for pre blitter HW and one with.

ST with Blitter would mostly act like non-Blitter ST until the new standard reaches critical install base mass. This is the same transition phase for OCS/ECS to AGA Amigas, PC EGA to PC VGA, PC 8086/80286 to PC 386, and PC IA-32 to PC X64.

The new baseline hardware specs must be attached to sustained large economies of scale instead of limited production runs like Atari TT's 256 colors mode.

Quote:

So in short whatever the thoughts were for ECS Denise what was delivered was pointless making the Agnus (1 or 2MB) the only valuable part of ECS.

ECS Denise is useful for its original business target market goals, not when VGA/SVGA has taken over PC annual sales, and the same for lower-cost color Macs switchover.

I wouldn't go back to OCS Denise when I upgraded my A500 Rev 6A to ECS Denise.
ECS Denise improves Paula's 28 kHz to 56 kHz which is useful with CPU/RTG accelerated Amigas.

I used ECS Denise for my CAD work, but A3000's production scale is tiny (a few thousand production scale) and it's too late when compared to ET4000-equipped PCs.

For business GUI use case, stock 68000 and CPU accelerated A500 with OCS Denise's usability is not on par with monochrome Mac Plus, Mac SE, and Macintosh Classic. There are millions of monochrome Macs to establish its business GUI application market.

The original intent for ECS is against monochrome Mac and 1986 MCGA 640 × 480p monochrome (mode 11h), not time exclusive for A3000. This is why A500 Rev6A has the full ECS-ready PCB modification. Millions of A500 Rev6A cover Amiga's golden years of 1989, 1990, and 1991. A500 Rev6A's potential was wasted.

Last edited by Hammer on 31-Jan-2025 at 11:31 PM.
Last edited by Hammer on 28-Jan-2025 at 11:15 PM.
Last edited by Hammer on 28-Jan-2025 at 11:13 PM.
Last edited by Hammer on 28-Jan-2025 at 11:08 PM.

_________________
Amiga 1200 (rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32/RPi CM4/Emu68)
Amiga 500 (rev 6A, ECS, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 4B/Emu68)
Ryzen 9 7950X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB