Re: Modern A2 successor

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

**** **** wrote:

> Roy,
>     Not to be mean, but I think that is kinda missing the point.

Kinda depends on whose point doesn't it? If you want a whole new computer and
still wish to call it an Apple II, this isn't it, and in my opinion, there never
will be one, since Apple won't produce it. (Unless they give the rights back to
Woz, and he decides to do something with it for the fun of it.) But if what you
want is to update the IIGS from 1986 to c. 1996, then this is the ticket.
(Always assuming, of course, that Bill is able to do it.) I know that Arkain
wishes to see a new II, and dreams of recapturing some of the II's market, but
in my opinion, the best that could be done would be to offer an upgrade path to
those who are still using IIs (like schools - and if they are still using IIs
then they probably can't afford to upgrade anyway, or they would buy new
machines.) I wish this were otherwise, but I think it's the most optimistic
anyone can be and still have a realistic appraisal of the marketplace.

> As far as a
> hardware project goes, it's interesting, and I'm sure it will be a challenge
> for him. In that, I wish him luck, because it's far more complex than I
> myself could design or build. But...
>
>     Is it just me, or is this a Power Mac running emulation software?

No. Why? Where's the Mac? This is an Apple IIGS because the ROM is the ROM that
is still physically in the IIGS, the slots are the IIGS slots, the disk drives
are attached to the disk port on the back of the machine, the serial ports are
the IIGS ports and so on. The only emulation is emulating the cpu itself. (Like
PowerMacs once did for 68000 series chips) And it is doing so inside a IIGS, not
a Mac.

> I
> mean, couldn't I superglue an A// to the top of my g3, and more or less have
> the same thing?

No. Why not? No MacOS, no Mac software, and no Mac.

>
>
>     If you put a ppc or x86 in an Apple4, and you put pci in it,

There is no PCI in this - there is the original motherboard with a multifunction
card. The functions are memory, turbo, and ethernet (also IDE, IF there is
enough room left over.)

> and you go
> with standard everything, it makes it a machine that is very easy to build
> and work with. It also makes it anything but an apple2 sucessor.

But that is the point - this isn't a successor computer, it is an enhancement to
a real Apple II, one that makes the IIGS the equal of Macs of just a few years
ago. And, considering the sprightly GS/OS, perhaps even more.

>
>
>     Of course, you can fill it with everything non-standard, and that isn't
> necessarily an apple2 sucessor either. I am aware of this too. But even were
> it not, there would be virtue in such a thing, if for no other reason that
> variety's sake. And I still think SMP 6502 variants would kick ass.

I'm unfamiliar with SMP - but the IIGS has an 8/16 bit CPU, who else makes one
but WDC? The point is that this IS an Apple II, a real true Apple II from Apple
(perhaps with it's original CPU) but with the ability (thanks to the PPC chip)
to run many times faster than the fastest 65816, and, assuming there is enough
room on the card, with ethernet that doesn't have to accessed through the 1 mhz
II bus, and with a full load of RAM so that the IIGS ROM routines and the
operating system and applications are also accessed without having to do so at
the 2.8 mhz of the IIGS. This is basically what the Transwarp card does to a //e
- supplies it with four times the memory space of the 6502 so that accessing the
//e RAM is sharply reduced (in theory at least), and replaces the 6502 with a
faster variety or with the 8/16 65802 chip. Would you say that an 8 mhz
Transwarp with a 65802 isn't a //e?

>
>
> John
>
> PS Those interested in a2 ethernet but unwilling to wait or to settle for a
> gs-only card...

I've forwarded some of the posts here to Bill, he's very interested in the card
that you have suggested. But I do know that he's been researching and
experimenting for over a year on his design. Of course, there are some very fine
hardware guys contributing ideas to the card discussed here, and sometimes one
guy is the best way to do something, and sometimes several are better.

Roy