Re: Questions on Accelerators and RamWorks III

[pitz <pitz.wong@gmail.com>]

On Nov 2, 12:26 pm, dog_...@macgui.com (D Finnigan) wrote:
> The last piece of desired equipment for my "dream" IIe system is an
> accelerator card. Before I pry open my wallet, I'd like to have some
> questions satisfied.
>
> First, I've done some research on various accelerators. From what I've read,
> not all of them "accelerate" the 64 KB AUX RAM area on a IIe, while others
> do. Ideally, since I'd be using a RamWorks III card, I'd like to know if
> there are any accelerators which can accelerate all banks of RAM.
>
> Furthermore, I'd like to know if there are any incompatibilities with
> accelerators and mass storage systems such as the FocusDrive. I suspect that
> since the Focus does not use IDE, there are none. But I'd like to confirm.
>
> Lastly, would an accelerator affect the timing of a clock card, such as the
> Timemaster II H.O.? Again, I suspect not, but I'd like to ask anyway.
>
> In closing, if anyone has suggestions for what I should get, please tell.
> I'll be posting a WTB advertisement in the csa2.marketplace newsgroup
> shortly.
>
> --
> Mac GUI Vault - A source for retro Apple II and
> Macintosh computing.http://macgui.com/vault/

Being able to use a better (more recent) monitor has always been top
on my lists.  May not be as important if the intent is a headless Unix-
like environment.

Carte Blanche with its VGA output could be an overkill for that, but
opens up other possible projects.  The Apple 80-column RGB card +
Video7 Mappler + CGA-to-VGA adapter could also work (I think the
Video7 Mappler circuitry is easy to make yourself, given its rarity).

Related to your work, I've been pondering the same with the IIgs.
Maybe take GNO/ME as a base and proceed from there.  I looked at the
IIe/IIc for a while, but the 256-byte fixed-location stack is a
deterrent to multi-tasking (unless you copy in/out all 256 bytes on
each task-switch).  The 64K bank #0 of the IIgs (although still non-
relocatable for use as stack memory) offers more legroom to have tasks
with each their own (2K for example) stack.  32 "active" tasks seem
realistic.