Re: New motherboard for IIGS case

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Supertimer writes ...
> 
> Diehard IIGS hardware fans stick to the hardware because
> they want the real IIGS unit and access to their Apple
> format hard drives and components.  Emulator fans feel
> that since there is no new motherboard in the making,
> emulation is the way to go.

     Don't know whether or not there is a new motherboard "in the making"; but,
there is some work being done on planning-- e.g. checking IC's which might be
used, basic system sketching, etc..


> But what if you combine both?
> 
> http://www.friendtech.com/ FriendTech has an interesting
> ISA card called the Renaissance AT.  Plug this card into
> a PC, even as lowly as an IBM XT, and it instantly will
> transform that old computer into a K6-2 550 or K6-III 550
> depending on the CPU installed.  The secret?  This card
> is really a motherboard in the formfactor of an ISA card.
> You actually disconnect the power supply, drive, front
> panel LED, input, printer, video, and sound connectors
> from the old motherboard and plug them into this card.
> The old motherboard will then be nothing but a holder for
> the Renaissance AT.
> 
> So what does this have to do with the Apple IIGS?  Two
> things.  According to the documentation of the
> Renaissance AT card, you do not actually need to
> mount it in an ISA slot.  In fact, you can mount it
> anywhere.  Unlike most PC motherboards, this ISA card
> will easily fit in a IIGS case.  Second, a 550Mhz K6-2
> (or K6-III) provides a hefty dose of emulation power.
> The K6-III is preferable because, especially with an
> emulator, the 256k of full speed (550Mhz on a 550Mhz
> chip) L2 cache would speed up everything, but the
> card itself does have 512k of pipeline-burst cache
> on a 100Mhz bus if the K6-2 is used instead.
> 
> The Renaissance AT card provides two USB ports for
> expansion purposes and here too is a great opportunity
> to make this card a new IIGS motherboard because
> there are USB to SCSI interfaces available so you
> can literally move your IIGS hard drive to this card and
> access them through an emulator.
> 
> Wait a minute, access a ProDOS/HFS hard drive
> through a PC based IIGS emulator?  How, you ask?
> Simple.  Step away from Windows for a moment and
> look to Linux or BeOS.  Both KEGS (for Linux) and
> Bernie (for BeOS) IIGS emulators provide hard access
> to storage devices so you can literally plug in your
> IIGS SCSI hard drive and go.
> 
> USB also lets you use the new Apple keyboards and
> mice with your new IIGS so the entire new computer
> will maintain the Apple look.  One of those iMac USB
> floppy drives will complete the look.  Since KEGS
> and Bernie can both format 1.44MB ProDOS and HFS
> disks through GS/OS, you can exchange floppies
> with high density capable IIGS users.
> 
> The card has some other nice features like AGP 3D
> accelerated graphics and 3D sound.  It takes
> standard PC100 memory.  With 64MB on board and
> a 550Mhz processor, you can even emulate a 68k
> Mac and run MacOS using the notebook version of
> the Gemulator program.  Think of it as the link Apple
> never provided.
> 
> The beauty of this setup is that you can mount the
> ports with the ribbon cables included in the package
> in the cutouts at the rear of the IIGS case and wire
> the IIGS power supply to power the card.  Because
> the Renaissance AT does not have slots of its own,
> the IIGS power supply (at least the ROM 3 version)
> should be enough for the card.
 ....

     A K6? Not likely. You would have to connect one of Steve Buggie's surplus
PC power supplies.


> 
> Where else can you find a motherboard with these
> features and this formfactor capable of fitting into
> a genuine IIGS case and connecting to genuine
> Apple keyboards, mice, and IIGS SCSI hard drives?

     You are not using an Apple IIgs keyboard and mouse; and, you can not plug
in Apple II diskette drives. Stuffing the board into a IIgs case does not
change very much. Basically, you have a PC running a IIgs emulator.

     If there were a sanely priced K6 PC card designed to emulate a IIgs-- i.e.
with 65C816 emu in firmware plus an A2 disk drive port to handle 5.25" and 3.5"
drives and SVGA video output-- then, needing to use a PC KB, mouse, joystick,
power supply, and monitor would be no problem.



Rubywand