Re: UltraWarp?

[Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com>]

STYNX <stynx@gmx.de> wrote:
> On 11 Jun., 14:21, David Schmidt <schmi...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>> On 6/11/2012 7:59 AM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
>> 
>>> On 06/11/2012 01:31 AM, Wayne Stewart wrote:
>>>> Anyone ever heard of an UltraWarp accelerator?
>>>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180902543040+&;...
>>> Looks like a Transwarp I on steroids. Would love to know more about the
>>> product. Odd that anyone would produce a new Apple 2 add-on and not talk
>>> about it on the newsgroup.
>> 
>> In one of the many places this was posted, another theory arose - that
>> this is an attempt to keep the UltraWarp trademark name alive:
>> 
>> http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?31203-mmmkay-t...
> 
> He said he doesn't know if he can go on since he has to make
> commercial use of the Ultrawarp trademark.
> He does seem to be a little secretive about his project (bad
> experiences in the past?).
> The used parts suggest, that he is working on this card since the 90s.
> The card looks more related to the Titan Accelerator II than the
> Transwarp regarding design decisions. (the system-ROM is not copied
> into fast-ram for example)
> I would expect an acceleration of around 6 times the stock computing
> power of an Apple IIe.
> I really like his design since something like this could have been
> thought of in the late 1980s.
> 
> - stynx

However, since ROM code is not accelerated, Applesoft programs are not
accelerated. That's a huge deficit in my opinion, since BASIC programs can
really benefit from acceleration. 

I much prefer a cached design, like the Zip, which accelerates everything. 

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon