Re: Super GS

[CUTblakeney@home.com (Jeff Blakeney)]

On Fri, 14 Apr 2000 01:38:24 GMT, Bill Heineman
<burger@contrabandent.com> wrote:

>Even a low-life 66 Mhz 486 can emulate a standard IIgs.

Would this be using KEGS?  I couldn't get my 486DX4-100 to even do
stock IIgs speeds with XGS under Windows 95 and even now on my Pentium
II 233, the fastest speed any of my emulators has reached is about 7
MHz.

>The real issue is why would you build a machine? Emulators like Bernie are
>already available and can turn a PowerBook into a nifty IIgs laptop. Unless
>you REALLY REALLY wanted to plug in your old hard drive cards or other
>peripherals, there is no compelling reason to build a computer from scratch.

I want a new machine because I don't want to have to waste hard drive
space with another operating system, waste time having to wait for
that OS to boot and waste RAM that the OS needs to run.

I want a new machine that I can turn on and boot into GS/OS.

I want a new machine that will run everything faster and access my
SCSI peripherals faster.

I want a new machine that takes the great things about the IIgs and
expands on them without changing the feel of the machine too much.
Things like higher resolution graphics with more colours and better
audio.

>On the other hand, doing a PowerPC processor board that plugs into a IIgs
>slot would be a neat trick.

The only problem I see with doing this is that you run into the same
problem that you do with the ZipGSX.  The faster you go, the less
benefit you get because it spends more time having to slow down to the
IIgs' 1 MHz bus speed.

I've been thinking of a modular design where the processor would be a
plug in module so it could come in different designs offering
different speeds and features.  You could have a 65816 module or a
StrongARM module with ROM code to make it emulate a 65816 or whatever.

You could also create an emulated 65832 this way even though the real
thing never existed.

Some day I'll get around to working on this because I would enjoy
working on it and if I did finish it, I'd have a great computer to
use.  :-)

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