Timeline for Why was it not possible to cost-reduce the Amiga 500?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 21, 2020 at 9:39 | comment | added | Holger | @AdamEberbach the CD³² still supported serial data transfer. The data lines were connected to the keyboard port. With an appropriate adapter, you could use it and still use the keyboard. So the costs for a serial port were shifted to the few percent of CD³² owners who (like me) actually wanted to use a serial connection. If USB only was a bit earlier… | |
| Jan 19, 2020 at 23:30 | comment | added | Bruce Abbott | @AdamEberbach Even a gold-plated edge connector costs money. Also more traces so the PCB might have to be larger and/or have more layers (=$$$), a custom case (if used) would need a hatch, and extra filtering might be required to reduce EMI (the A1200 had several bodges applied to reduce EMI, which caused problems with some accelerator cards). Finally, with expansion devices not supported the 'glue' logic could be simpler, development and testing costs reduced, and reliability improved. | |
| Jan 19, 2020 at 22:59 | comment | added | user6580 | By removing serial and parallel ports you lose the ability to connect printer and modem. That really would have been a games machine shoved out at the lowest possible price! And what did the expansion bus cost? It was just a piece of PCB, they even pushed the cost of the plug onto the peripheral manufacturer. | |
| Jan 19, 2020 at 17:42 | comment | added | snips-n-snails | Or maybe instead of a full motherboard, the Amiga could have been some kind of accelerator in an ISA or PCI slot, with its own video out. | |
| Jan 19, 2020 at 16:44 | vote | accept | rwallace | ||
| Jan 19, 2020 at 1:08 | history | edited | Bruce Abbott | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1 character in body
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| Jan 19, 2020 at 1:00 | history | answered | Bruce Abbott | CC BY-SA 4.0 |