Re: New Apple IIgs hardware? Maybe.

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

S�nke Behrens <sbehrens@bigfoot.com> wrote:

> Hi, 
> 
> I have received a "teaser" e-mail about some new hardware that's to be
> released for the Apple IIgs. I got a picture (which tells me very
> little), and a note that: 
> 
>      There will be a new add-on card for the Apple IIgs 
>      More info earliest April-May 1998 
>      The card could be quite interesting to "certain" people 
>      It won't be a SCSI or IDE adapter 
> 
> Weird. I'm waiting to hear more, anyway :)

Well, from looking at the picture, I notice a large LATTICE chip (as you
mentioned) - could be something like an FPGA or some other logic device.
There is also a crystal above the mysterious chip on the right, and a
Hitachi RAM to the left of it.  The larger chips to the left of the card
may also be memory.

I can't make out what the yellow thing above the lattice chip is
supposed to be, nor the two yellow things on the right.  Apart from
these, I can't see anything that looks like a connector.

Given the evidence, and the number of pins on the mystery chip, my guess
is a coprocessor card of some kind.

On the other hand, it may just be a hoax.  The card itself appears to
have been designed for through-hole components (there are several empty
positions in evidence) and the actual componentry is surface mount and
glued onto the card, some at rather odd angles.  (This may be just an
existing card that is being reused as a base for the new design, of
course.)  I can't see any discrete components (resistors, capacitors,
etc.)

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