Re: What if we designed and built a "32bit" Apple II?

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

John Van Winkle wrote:

>I think to expand on the Apple II series and yet preserve the HW lineage, I
>would like to see more of the Transwarp type products produced.  Since the
>CFFA cards replaced the Profile hard drives, these newer Transwarp type
>cards could also "replace/upgrade" the 6502 and make them faster yet
>preserve the hardware.  Since I don't have a Transwarp, that is what I would
>like to experience under the hood of my A2.

There is no doubt that many would like an accelerator for their
machines.  Today, the biggest problem would be the design
investment, since dense programmable parts are avaialble for
reasonable prices.

What I don't understand is wholesale changes to the memory
map or video interface, since, to the extent that it does not
implement the standard Apple II, the machine is without software.

That means that it would be years of dedicated software creation
effort (yeah, sure) before anyone derived benefit from the "enhanced"
machine except for its "Transwarp-like" (transparent) processor
acceleration.

We must all observe the fact that the Apple II line--in any style
or configuration--no longer commands any significant software
development effort.  By that I mean that there are less than a
dozen major applications released per year, right?

We are now, and have been for a decade, in the mode of enjoying
what software exists, and the few snippets of code that enthusiasts
make available on a somewhat random basis.  Ditto for the few
hardware enhancements that make it to market.

This is reality.  This is not going to improve significantly.
Good grief!--get used to it!

People will continue to "discover" the Apple II line at a low,
relatively constant rate, and some will be drawn to its simple,
graceful technology as a hobby, or even an artform.  But there
is no coming resurgence in Apple II hardware or software, or,
most crucially, interest.

We, and a few who continue to join us, are _it_.

I expect that the current "accretion" rate is pretty similar to
the "depletion" rate of the community, so it would not surprise
me to find that the number of Apple II enthusiasts is at equilibrium.

-michael

Check out parallel computing for 8-bit Apples on my
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/