Re: Modern A2 successor

["Arkain" <rwking@no.usa.spam.net>]

You really don't get it do you...
Let me try to explain my theory. Keep reading....

Roy and/or Janet Miller <millers@inetnebr.com> wrote in message
3980A145.83835F80@inetnebr.com">news:3980A145.83835F80@inetnebr.com...
> Arkain wrote:
>
> > ??? What??? Don't you have any imagination? There are only at least 10
> > specific things that I could use the slots for...
> >
> > Unlisted posibilities for the slots:
> >
> >  1. Ethernet cards
>
> The problem here of course, is the bus is a tight bottleneck.

An 8 bit 50Mhz bus can easily handle up to 4 100Mbit cards. A 64bit 50Mhz
bus can even deal with up to 3 1Gbit cards. I can't say that I see your
bottleneck just yet.

> >
> >  2. Appletalk cards
>
> IIGS already has this on the motherboard

I knew I forgot something! ;-D

> >
> >  3. Modem cards
>
> Who's gonna make a XTII modem?

Who cares? Make 14.4, 28.8 or 56K modems, or even faster if you like.

> >
> >  4. Accelerator cards
>
> But if you're making a new motherboard you shouldn't need to do this.

1Mhz was fast in it's time, but a year later...

> >
> >  5. Co-processor cards
>
> Ditto

Suppose I want to run CP/M?

> >
> >  6. Scsi cards
>
> Ditto

You must be a Mac user. PC's don't usually come with built-in SCSI support,
just as Mac's don't usually come with EIDE-ATA support. I chose EIDE over
SCSI for it's low price and relative simplicity.

> >
> >  7. USB cards
> >  8. FireWire cards
>
> Ditto for both - though, I'm so far behind that I really don't know what
I'd do
> with either of these :-)

Most peopple don't use them, but that doen't mean that no one will want
them! Some folks are satisfied just having the option.

> >
> >  9. Video Capture cards
> > 10. TV Video/S Video out cards
>
> Cool - but PCI cards already exist for these, and who will design and
> manufactor these in the dozens?

Who cares? That soen't mean that no one will try. After all, it's just
another possibility.

> >
> > 11. Home automation cards
> > 12. Cards for proprietary interfaces
>
> I don't mean to be too negative, really, but someone has reported that
there
> are about 1000 lurkers here, perhaps another couple of hundred on Delphi,
and
> I'm sure there have got to be a couple thousand II users elsewhere, but
who
> could stay alive making at most 2000 new computers?

At one time, Apple had the vast majority of the home user market. It gave
that market up when it(foolishly?) switched to Macintosh-only, dropping all
A2 development & support. There are many PC users like myself that still
long for the simplicity of an Apple 2, but with the power of a more modern
PC or Mac. That is what I'm trying to design. If it never becomes popular,
or is even built, it's all of no consequence. It's just something that I'd
like to see/make happen.

> Please believe me though, I do hope you are successful.

So do I!

> Roy

Arkain