Re: A question about 80 columns card

[Greg Weston <gwestonREMOVE@CAPSattbi.com>]

In article <20030508161820.28097.00000053@mb-m17.aol.com>, Michael J.
Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:

> >I can't remember, or the articles at the time never said, why they
> >didn't just put the extra memory on the motherboard.
> 
> The only apparent motivation was additional profit from selling
> the 80-column capability for a lot more than the cost of memory.

Actually, it wsn't all that much more expensive than the cost of the
parts. It's just that the parts _were_ expensive. In flipping through
the manual just now, I think the reason it wasn't added directly was
because when it was first available it would actually cause issues with
some older software.


> By the time of the Platinum //e, the game was up, and the card
> was included (though, ironically, the original "optional" design
> required a higher-cost approach--AUX connector and separate
> card--instead of simply putting two more 4x64K chips on the
> main board).

Even better: remember that there were 2 80 column cards. The "standard"
one actually only had 1K of extra memory.

G