Re: IIGS cards

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article midd33@aol.com (Midd33) writes...

>hi.  The color switch card and the PC transporter are from Applied
>Engineering. The PC transporter allows you to run pc software on your GS.
>THe color cards is probably for the graphics capabilities of the PCT card.

    No, the ColorSwitch is just a little circuit device that allows the
AppleColor RGB to be feed a digital RGB signal (and as the name implies,
switches between Apple and PC video without having to touch any cables).
The CGA video signal comes for the PCT card itself, from the large PLCC
chip near the top right corner of the board I believe.

    Don't forget that Apple II Plus and IIe users do not use the Color-
Switch, just the PCT itself connected to a CGA monitor or NTSC monochrome
display. A PCT on these systems does display PC video modes too.

>you'll need pc drives to run the pc software naturally.

    Nope, an Apple 3.5 drive will function as a 720K MFM drive with
the PCT controlling it (I corrected you before in an earlier post).
You just need two of them, one for the Apple side and one for the
PC.

>The ZipGSX card is an accelerator. It does fit into the CPU socket as well
>as a slot. I doubt that you will be able to know the speed of it just by
>looking at it.

    Sure you can, just look at the megahertz rating printed on the tin
oscillator (top left corner) and divide it by four. You could also look
at speed rating on the PLCC 65C816 chip (e.g. -7, -8, -9) and that will
give you a hint. Then again, many chips are under or overclocked (though
not by much) so your still better off looking at the oscillator to see
what speed it is running the chip at. Ignore the DIP 65C816, that is
just there for storage purpose and not connected to anything. :)

>but it probably is a 7mhz or 8 mhz card. version 1.0 is known to be buggy,
>but at least you have one! many people are looking to buy one.

    Any version is better than the TransWarp GS if you ask me. :)
(the way that AE board heats up and drains the main powersupply, 
maybe they should have called it the WarpCoreBreach GS; I had to 
eject mine having almost suffered one ;)

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca