Gateway A2-1000
Developer: CU Amiga
Month of presentation: September 1998
A spoof article in the penultimate edition of CU Amiga Magazine
(September 1998) speculated on what the new Amiga would look like.
Its design is remarkably similar to the Walker- black in colour
with a moulded floppy drive and inset power lights. The mini-tower
betrays its origins, drawing from previous Gateway, Packard Bell,
and Escom designs, bridging the gap with non-computer devices. The
LCD display has long been a favourite of Amiga journalists, similar
to the clock speed found on older PC's. Like the Amiga concept
drawings it looks cramped, restricting internal upgrades, promoting
the use of USB and FireWire. The 'review' is full of references to
current products giving it a realistic tone making it difficult to
believe it is not a real system.
As a prediction of things to come it presents a cynical view of the
capabilities of the machine- not the fact that it is not capable of
doing what Amiga Inc. predict, but that it does not revolutionize
daily events in, say, the same way as adding a hard drive to an
Amiga would. Despite being prophetic it does get one thing wrong-
the Torre Box; an immortalisation of Joe Torre that was
rendered obsolete when he left Amiga Inc. less than a month later.
At the time it was a well though out design based upon
specifications of the time. Since then concept designs have gone
further into the Digital Convergence market, looking even less like
a computer.
Speculative System Specifications
- RAM: 64 Mb
- Processor: TOP SECRET
- Hard Drive: 2.1Gb Firewire, LS120 SuperFloppy
- DVD-ROM: 4.7Gb double sided Firewire
- Graphics: Up to 1924 x 1280, 75hz @ scan 15KHz - 64KHz
- Sound: Fully AC-3 compatible surround, stereo 24 bit in/out up
to 96KHz
- 3D: 400 Million pixels/s, up to 8 million triangles/s
- Ports: Scart, composite, SVGA, Audio in/out, firewire, USB, ECP
Parallel,serial, phone.
- Telephony: 56k modem and ADSL.
The machine described on this page is the product of
speculation and the desires by various Amiga magazines on what
would make the perfect Amiga. In other words, THEY ARE PURE
FICTION. They reveal a great deal on the state of the
market at the time and the perceived needs of the Amiga
consumer
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