Re: Apple IIgs upgrade points to ponder

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

"Jason Whorton" <jason@microxl.com> wrote:

>Hello.  I looked at tws's page after reading the "know someone who will make
>cards" part and came up with a few points that I hope will spur further
>thought.
>
>1.  Applied Engineering had the ability to make a PC Transporter for an
>Apple II.  The Diamond Trackstar card for PC's is as best I can remember, is
>a card that plugged into an ISA slot and allowed the use of Apple II
>programs somehow.  From what I remember reading about the Apple IIgs, the
>8-bit Apple II part was put on two chips that are on IIgs motherboards.  It
>is now over 10 years later and the technology part of making hardware
>advancements for the IIgs should be pretty much readily available.   This
>does not take into account anything other than the technology question (i.e.
>Is the technology out there to make a new IIgs hardware item?)

About that Trackstar card...a 128k Apple IIe on a card.  Nathan has
said it would not physically fit into a 16-bit ISA slot, but if you look
at the card, there is no electronics in the "overlapping" area...users
have broke off that portion and the card does function in a Pentium.

Sure, technology has improved.  The PC Transporter was an IBM
XT clone on a card.  Some time ago, "Burger" Bill said that it was
a simple matter to design a '486 or Pentium on a card for the IIGS
...if there was a market...

There is plenty of technology to make new IIGS hardware.  A few
years ago, someone came out with an SVGA card for the IIGS.
Many readers of this NG have one...it is called the Second Sight.
Read about it at http://www.sequential.com/ Sequential Systems.

>2.  A new hardware item such as tws is proposing would be pretty much a
>replacemnet for whatever motherboard you had now.  I think that it would be
>harder to create, manufacture, market, and sale a replacement instead of an
>add-on.  I am a daily reader of the Atari 8-bit, Commodore, Texas
>Instruments, and Tandy newsgroups.  The Commodore, Tandy, and TI groups have
>new hardware items discussed often.  For example, I was on the TI list
>server and several people stated they would be glad to pay $200 for an
>80-column card for their machine.  I don't see that level of support in the
>posts in comp.sys.apple2.

I disagree.  I read people buying Sirius RAM cards, Second Sight
SVGA cards, Ramfast SCSI cards, and Focus hard drives all the
time.  We may be less vocal...probably due to flame wars and a
few naysayers...

>3.  I would like to see more information available to newbies as to what all
>their Apple II computer can do.  Maybe a web site with a couple of screen
>shots and a brief explanantion of some of the more widely used programs
>would help.

I'm in the process of uploading some such information to the ground
ftp server (thanks to Steve, ground librarian, for providing me with the
correct folder to upload to via email!)...

>4.  The person that posted about making more IIgs accelerators hit the nail
>on the head.  I hope someone makes some accelerator cards.  I think they
>would sell well.  With word of mouth and a little advertising on the
>Internet or newsletters, I think it wouldn't be too hard to sell 100 IIgs
>accelerator cards.  Dr. Buggie has sold 182 or so of his BUGG-POWER power
>supplies.  Surely one must think 100 accelerator cards would sell for what
>$100??? a pop?  Perhaps those of you with accelerator cards can provide some
>information on which major programs it helps out on and how much.  Go ahead,
>create some interest for a potential future builder.

ALL programs benefit from acceleration.  You basically NEED an
accelerator to use an Apple IIGS in its native mode (unless you
want to see your programs moving at the speed of a black and
white Mac unit...you know, the old ugly ones...)!

>5.  Name three enhancmenets you would like to see for the IIgs.

Ethernet card
New accelerator or math co-processor (possibly ARM powered)
New Pentium or 486 powered PC Transporter

>Myself, I would like to see an IDE card for hard disk drives.  I don't
>recall anyone saying for sure whether or not the Focus hard drive is
>basically an IDE card or not.

Focus is IDE.

>If a PC can have a 2 serial port, 1 parallel
>port, 1 game port, and IDE support card for $15, surely we can have one with
>regular old IDE support for hard drives.

Already done.  ///SHH Systeme makes the Microdrive Turbo IDE card,
a DMA IDE controller that can drive two IDE hard drives, each up to
4GB in size.

>I think an accelerator would come after a hard drive, but would be useful
>from what I have read.

Extremely useful.  It accelerates some things more than others.
I'm not saying it will turn your IIGS into a Pentium, but a >12Mhz
TransWarp GS will speed up your GS such that in the Finder,
windows open and close as fast as Windows 95 or Macintosh
...it makes the GUI fun to use...

>If more people had a system with a hard drive, 4MB RAM card, and
>accelerator, more focus would be placed on making priograms to take
>advantage of them.

Basically ALL new GS programs in the last 10 years (AppleWorks GS
and newer) requires such.  Try running Wolfenstein 3D GS with ANY
of your above mentioned components missing...

>These are some points that I cam e up with after reading recent posts on
>IIgs upgrades.  Please feel free to e-mail me and/or post a message here
>about your thoughts.  I think it would be helpful to the whole Apple II
>community.

Yup.  O-and be sure to prepare yourself from an attack by THE
Nathan Mates, our resident flamer.  If you brainstorm, he will
go on the attack.  ;-)