Re: Laser 128EX RAM

["Kim Heui Jung" <spix2000@kornet.net>]

"Mitchell Spector" <a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca> wrote in message
3b65f8bb.21722221@newsflash.concordia.ca">news:3b65f8bb.21722221@newsflash.concordia.ca...
> "william strutts" <wrstrutts1@nospam.home.com> wrote:
>
> >"Mitchell Spector" <a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca> wrote in message
> >3b62cf1b.11064709@newsflash.concordia.ca">news:3b62cf1b.11064709@newsflash.concordia.ca...
> >> Wayne Stewart <waynes@intergate.bc.ca> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I had the cover off a Laser 128EX and was wondering if anyone knew
what
> >> >the extra 64k on the motherboard was for? Odd it being separate from
the
> >> >other
> >> >128k..
> >>
> >>     That extra 64K is dedicated video RAM. From what I remember, the
Laser
> >> used it for shadowing techniques to help speed up video screens when
the
> >> built-in accelerator was active. It also had built-in support for
driving
> >a
> >> digital RGB/TTL monitor.
> >>
> >>     Hm, another thing unique to the Laser that I remember hearing about
is
> >> an interlaced mode very much like that of the Apple III Plus (280x384
and
> >> 560x384).
> >
> >I saw one of those the other day at a thrift store (Laser 128) but it was
> >missing the power cord and many of the cables for the ports
> >seemed unusual.  Reminded me a lot of the IIc ports.  Din-5
> >connectors if I recall right.  It had a built in 5.25 drive.  The box
> >claimed it could have 1 meg of RAM.
>
>     There were actually four Laser models, released in this order:
> Laser 3000, Laser 128, Laser 128EX and Laser 128EX/2.

What is Laser 3000?
Is it a IBM PC compatible machine?

>
>     Off hand I can't remember which features were added to each
> model, but they did came with many cool features built-in. There
> was the equivalent of a 1MB Slinky RAM card on some (with the
> sockets on the mainboard), an accelerated CPU, built-in UDC
> controller, RGB video, MIDI, parallel port, battery operated clock
> and Control Panel, function keys, a numeric keypad, an internal
> floppy drive, etc. Even a standard 50-pin Apple II slot on the side
> of the machine. The EX/2 really put the Apple IIc Plus to shame.
>
>     VTech/Laser was also know as one of the only companies
> that managed to be Apple II compatible without duplicating the
> original Apple ROMs. Apparently they were working on (or at
> least planned to built) a super enhanced Apple IIGS clone, but
> Apple prevented that from happening. Ah well, if you can find
> some, they made excellent IBM-101 keyboards. :-)
>
> Mitchell Spector
> a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca