Re: Modern A2 successor

[Roy and/or Janet Miller <millers@inetnebr.com>]

Arkain wrote:

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

:-) perhaps we are talking past one another here, but I suspect that you
haven't gotten my point.

>
> 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.

But that *isn't* the Apple II bus. Woz's bus is a 1 mhz 8 bit bus. That's the
bottleneck. Even on the IIGS, the slots are still 8 bit 1 mhz slots. I'd be
surprised if you could push it much past 8 mhz. Pleasantly surprised, but
surprised none the less.

> > >
> > >  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.

I care. Why would you create a slot that will never be filled?

>
>
> > >
> > >  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...

:-) but the //e didn't die until 16 years later - what kept it alive wasn't
speed, but software. Over 20,000 titles. Still, you do have a point here.

> > >
> > >  5. Co-processor cards
> >
> > Ditto
>
> Suppose I want to run CP/M?

Then you don't need extended slots - or all 7 of the II slots.

>
> > >
> > >  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.

Actually, I use various machines, depending on what I'm doing. But I thought
you said in the post above that you would put SCSI on the motherboard, which is
why I wrote "ditto." Perhaps I was wrong, if so ya got me. :-)

>
> > >  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.

Well you see, that's my point. There are so very few hardware projects around
because there are so few people to sell them to. Like with modems, an existing
bus (ISA/Microchannel/PCI/Nubus) that has cards I can already buy and use (I
guess that rules out Microchannel and EISA) would make more sense than an
extension to a 23 year old bus. Of course, if you were going to do this just
for your own pleasure have fun, and I'd love to see it run sometime. But I
wouldn't buy such a motherboard, because I sincerely doubt that there would
ever be cards available to put in the slots. I'd love to be proven wrong
though!

>
>
> > >
> > > 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