Re: Commentary: I Hate to Leave Like This

[nraymond@genesis.nred.ma.us (NATHAN RAYMOND)]

There are a couple of things that I think I should clear up...
 
Here are the operating systems Apple's lowest end PowerPC (60Mhz) is reported
to support:
 
- seamless Mac emulation simultaneous with other emulations, running at LCIII
  to Quadra 605 speeds (theoretically allowing indirect Apple II software
  emulation with II in a Mac or other Apple II software emulators for the Mac,
  at estimated speeds of a 2-4Mhz IIe on PPC).
- Windows NT, which will run Windows and DOS applications in emulation as
  well, at about 486DX/33 speeds.
- various implementations of UNIX running simultaneously and seamlessly with
  the emulators, including AIX and Sun's Solaris UNIX OS (implementing
  NeXTstep object-oriented technology)
- Taligent (a company spawned from the Apple/IBM alliance and attatched to
  neither) will release the next generation of document-centric completely
  object-oriented operating system codenamed Pink, expected in early 1995.
 
Not too bad, eh?
Also, Apple is liscensing its PowerPC ROMs to Mac accelerator makers DayStar,
Applied Engineering, and others, who will make accelerators for nearly all
Mac models, from the LC to the Quadra and special processor-direct '040
models, most for under $1000 come March, the faster ones (80Mhz) for more.
 
Now, to respond to some things said earlier...
 
For people moving from the Apple II to another platform and are trying to
decide on a computer and need one soon, and are considering a Mac...
(PowerPC beta hardware has been out for a year, guys...)
Here are the downsides to not getting an Apple logic board upgrade (which
will only be about $1600, depending on model) from Mac to PPC,
and instead buying a third party accelerator:
 
- no GeoPort (the next generation serial port already on the AV Macs that
  allow high speed communications and will let PPC users take advantage of
  the DSP features of the 601 and future generations of PPC RISC processors,
  in other words no built-in 14.4bps fax/modem/digital answering machine).
- limits slots further, in some cases eliminating AV features add-in board
  possibility, or severly limiting future expandbility
- if the computer does not have a 68040 and NuBus expansion slots are used
  for the PPC accelerator, then performance is sacrificed because on all
  non-'040 based Macs the NuBus is hooked up to the I/O bus, not the system
  bus.
- performance will be degraded more by the Mac's 32-bit data bus, because the
  PPC uses a 64-bit data bus (sort of like the Mac IIvx: 32Mhz with a big
  cache but 16Mhz system bus makes it run as fast as a 25Mhz LCIII !)
 
on the positive side of 3rd party accelerators you have:
- price
- compatability (same Apple ROMs)
- ease of installation (computer has to be sent to Apple for a logic board
  upgrade)
 
An exception to the 3rd party PPC accelerators is a $750 card advertised now
with an 80Mhz 601 PPC for the Quadra 840AV (a computer which already has a
GeoPort, 16-bit audio in/out (44Khz), Digital Signal Processor (DSP), voice
recognition, video digitizing, SCSI Direct Memmory Access (DMA) chip, and a
40Mhz system bus connected to the NuBus expansion slots. Performance lost
with a PPC accelerator board here is minimal, and the advantages are great.
 
One person said that neither IBM/compatibles nor Macs have good fimware, but
the IIGS does. Huh?! The IIGS firmware was a clone of the Mac II firmware...
have you checked out the AV Mac firmware? What were you referring to?
 
Somebody else said that they wouldn't buy Apple beacuse they didn't support
products like the Apple III, Lisa, and IIGS.  Weak argument because:
1. Apple III failed because of manufacturing difficulties which killed
   interest in the machine, even after it was fixed.
   Lisa was the $10,000 office product flop, and Apple kindly offered an easy
   way to upgrade it to a Mac, and even today companies support it and you
   can get the necessary stuff to run the latest software, including
System 7.
   The IIGS was a project several people inside Apple didn't want, every part
   of Apple was not fully behind the Apple II then (read _West of Eden_, by
   Frank Rose).
2. I do not see Apple as the same company I bought my //c from, it has changed
   in more ways than I have the time to write, and different people with
   different ideas make it up now.  Is this the same Apple that plans to come
   out in the fall of 1995 with a an SMP processor-intensive database
   transaction server with multiple CPU slots, supporting Asynchronous
   Transfer Mode?  Seems like a different Apple to me..
3. Apple will convert its entire Mac line to PowerPC - no more 68000 series,
   other than a couple last models that might come out implementing the 68060
   (Motorola decided to skip the 68050).  By the way, it looks as if IBM is
   planning the same, and Intel is panicking right now, doing nasty adds and
   slashing prices in fear of the PowerPC and what it might do to its market.
 
Any questions?