Re: A2 Dream System

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

In article <2jbmag$f1v@meaddata.meaddata.com>
johnt@meaddata.com (John Townsend) writes:
> In article <2j8hd0$k6c@rbse.Mountain.Net>,
> quinn@Mountain.Net (Quinn Avery) writes:
> |> Are all PC transporters 8088's?  Are they genuine motherboards you can
> |>  simply upgrade to something better?
> 
> The PCT is a card that plugs into a slot of the Apple II, so obviously it
> isn't a full-fledged PC motherboard.  It has a NEC chip that's basically
> equivalent to an 8MHz 80186, an 8087-2 coprocessor,

The coprocessor is optional - the PC Transporter has an empty socket
in which you can install the coprocessor.

> a maximum of 768K of RAM,

Only 640k of this is usable for the PC as system RAM.  The rest is
video RAM and BIOS.  If the card is used as a RAM disk (from the Apple
II side) then 752k is available (minus directory, boot block, bitmap).

> and an EGA-compatible display.  It's nothing fancy by today's standards,
> but still quite usable.

It's CGA, not EGA.  It is fine for most text applications (colour or
black and white) but the vast majority of graphics applications expect
VGA (or at least EGA).

CGA supports 320 x 200 with four colours (one is selectable from the
sixteen standard colours, the other three can be chosen from two sets:
red, green, brown; cyan, magenta, white) or 640 x 200 with two colours
(one is settable, the other is white).
-- 
David Empson                                                               
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz                                                
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand