Re: More ??? was [Re: Newbie at Apple IIgs]

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Robert Strachan <g3man@macol.net> wrote:

> 1. It was recommended to upgrade the IIgs to 4 megs. Okay, is that ROM or
> RAM? or what?

RAM.  It generally means buying a memory expansion card.  Many of these
come with 4 MB of RAM already installed, but in some cases you could get
a card which has less RAM on it, and you can buy more RAM to fully
populate it.

Your IIgs might already have Apple's original memory expansion card, but
it can only be upgraded to 1 MB.  You need a third party card to expand
the memory further.  (Your Apple card then becomes useless.)

You can't upgrade the ROM _size_, though in one case you can upgrade the
ROM firmware to a newer version: the orignal IIgs firwmare, commonly
referred to as "ROM 00", should be upgraded to ROM 01 to allow any
software written since 1988 to be used.

> 2. Why is there such a difference in the kinds of memory, price wise? Is it
> because of one being for RAM and the other ROM?

Buying ROM is rather rare.

There are lots of different types of RAM, which vary widely in price
according to a large number of factors, including type of RAM, speed,
features, mounting hardware, but mainly supply and demand.

I can't be more specific than that unless I know more about your
situation.  The type of RAM chips or modules required vary between IIgs
memory expansion cards.

> 3. Is the 'FocusDrive' for $59 from Alltech the cheapest way to get a hard
> drive for the IIgs? It doesn't have to be large (yet).

Assuming you don't have an external SCSI drive available already, it
probably is the cheapest.  If you do have a spare external SCSI drive,
it may be cheaper to get a SCSI card.

> 4. I hear talk about needing a controller card for a hard drive, are they
> expensive and what kind to I need?

You wouldn't need one for the Focus, since the hard drive is mounted
directly onto the controller card.  The Focus uses a 2.5" IDE hard drive
mechanism.

For a SCSI drive, you need a SCSI card.  There are three reasonly good
options: the original Apple SCSI card (slow but cheap), the Apple
High-Speed SCSI card (I have one of these), and the RamFast SCSI card
(the fastest and most expensive, but also the only one still sold and
supported).  There are tradeoffs between the latter two as far as
compatibility is concerned.

There are other third party SCSI cards, but I'd hesitate to recommend
them.

Termination can be a little fiddly:

1. The original Apple SCSI card is not terminated at all, and external
termination is required at BOTH ends of the SCSI chain if you connect
more than one device.  (This means using a pass-through terminator on
the connection closest to the computer.)

2. Neither of the Apple SCSI cards provide termination power, unless
modified by adding a diode.  (This modification was preinstalled by
Apple on late model High-Speed SCSI cards.)  If this modification is not
made, at least one of the devices connected to the bus must be able to
supply termination power to the bus.

> 5. What's this I've read about a Super Serial Card?

You are not likely to need one with a IIgs, since the machine already
has two built-in serial ports.  The Super Serial Card is most commonly
used in an Apple II+ or IIe to add a serial port to the machine.

> 6. What if I wanted to use my ZIP (SCSI) drive on it?

It usually works, but there are some issues:

1. The original Apple SCSI card firmware doesn't know about removable
SCSI hard drives.  This makes it unsafe to eject the disk without
rebooting.  This is only an issue if you are using 8-bit software
(ProDOS-8).  If you are running the native IIgs operating system
(GS/OS), removable disks are handled correctly.

2. There are problems in some cases if the drive goes to sleep and the
computer then tries to access it.  This has been reported with both
Apple SCSI cards, in any operating system.  I don't know if the RamFast
is affected.  This can be avoided by using a third-party driver.

3. Termination power must be provided by another device (either the SCSI
card or another hard drive).

> 7. It may be overkill but I have a Global Village 33.6. Can I use that?
> Does it need another cable? (other than the one it came with)

Yes, it will work (with the supplied cable), but it is overkill.  The
IIgs serial port maxes out at 57600 bps, so you won't get full
throughput when transferring compressable data.  To even use 57600 bps
you might need an accelerator.

In any case, you need commercial communications software to support
hardware handshaking: ProTerm and Spectrum are the most popular options.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand