Re: New ][ Hardware

[David.Empson@bbs.actrix.gen.nz]

In article <1993Feb10.215022.11942@fawlty.towers.oz.au> johnmac@fawlty.towers.oz.au (John MacLean) writes:
> In article <k9wiyB7w165w@graphics.rent.com> scraft@graphics.rent.com (Steve Craft) writes:
> >Yes, Computist Magazine is still around.  And with neew hardware to boot:
> >
> >SUPER II
> > 
> >     4MHz 65C816
> >     1-16MB SIMM RAM on the board (uses standard 1MB SIMMs)
> >     128K system ROM on board
> >     plugs into an expansion slot
> >     price: $170 assembled with 0 RAM (you order your own and plug in)
> >     designed by Chuck Haight, editor of COMPUTIST* magazine
> > 
> >     Since, except for disk and similar I/O accesses, the board runs
> >at the full 4MHz, it is faster than the 8MHz Zip chip (which averages
> >about 3.9MHz) and the standard IIgs PLUS you get the advantages of
> >direct, linear access to nearly 16MB RAM.
> 
> (1) Anyone know why/if the board is limited to 4MHz. Could you plug in
> a faster 65816 / crystal and faster memory?
> An 8MHz board with no caching would REALLY fly.

Probabably to minimise noise problems and board cost.  Consider that
you'd need 60 ns SIMMs at 4 MHz, 30 ns at 8 MHz.

> > This is a 'clean' piece of hardware
> >designed for speed and power which takes maximum advantage of the
> >65C816. Initially, the plan is to rely upon DOS 3.3 and ProDOS for
> >disk I/O. An improved operating system and a more powerful BASIC
> >remain to be developed.
> 
> (1) It can't be too clean if it relies on Apple // video or on Apple // I/O.

I get the impression that it is a card which plugs into a slot in an
Apple II.  The card relies on the Apple doing the disk I/O, and
providing data for the 'Super II' (using DMA, or something like that).
This is basically the same technique used by the PC Transporter and
some Z80 (CP/M) cards.  It is a 'computer within a computer', or a
co-processor card.

> (2) I'll leave it to the readers to stick a Super II and a VOC in a //e,
> copy the ROMs from a GS into Super II RAM, do a little bit of patching, and
> have GS software running on their //e's at faster than GS speed (Maybe even
> on a II+ :-)

Ha!  What about all the IIgs's hardware?  Where do you output your
Super Hires Graphics, for example  :-)

> (4) I'd love one, but what on earth would I do with it? Without better
> video and without an operating system who would buy one? When I say who,
> I am refering to developers - real users are an even more distant dream.

Consider the advantages of a IIgs program (or, for that matter, a IIe
program) that can detect the card and load some code into it to perform
parallel computing?

You could write programs that require the use of this card, but other
programs might just optimize their operation by using the card in
preference to the II's own processor, i.e. run faster if the card is
installed, but still run OK without it.
-- 
David Empson

Internet: David.Empson@bbs.actrix.gen.nz    EMPSON_D@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand