Re: All this talk of a new GS...

[Frank Carney <frankc@cyberhighway.net>]

Jonas Bevren wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 28 Jan 2000, David Empson wrote:
> 
> > Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 00:00:30 +1300
> > From: David Empson <dempson@actrix.gen.nz>
> > Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
> > Subject: Re: All this talk of a new GS...
> >
> > Jonas Bevren <jbevren@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > > On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, John & Anne Le Febvre wrote:
> > >
> > > > IDE & SCSI connector (SCSI II enough?  Or U2W?)
> > >
> > > SCSI-II is quite fast. =) If you could use FAST scsi, you could reach
> > > 20meg/sec.
> >
> > That would be Fast/Wide, or Ultra/Narrow.
> >
> > (Standard is 5 MB/sec, Fast is 10 MB/sec, assuming narrow, i.e. 8 bits.)
> 
> Right. my error. =)
> 
> > > Quite enough for a //gs environment, where 8 megs ram is the max. (am I
> > > wrong here?)
> >
> > 8 MB is the practical limit for the current motherboard design.  In
> > theory, a new design might be able to use as much as 14 MB of RAM by
> > extending the fast RAM through banks $80 to $DF.  This would require
> > changes to the Memory Manager toolset (and would cause compatibility
> > problems with the TransWarp GS for certain, and probably also the Zip
> > GS; who cares if we're talking about a faster processor anyway!).
> 
> Oooooo. =) I'd love to see something like this.  I agree with the
> accelerator compatiblity problems, but since there'll be no need in a
> (dreaming here) 200mhz '816 environment, it doesnt matter.
> 
> Let's not drop out on this one, it's a quite feasible idea.  The only real
> challenge is figuring out how to implement the custom grpahics hardware
> employed by the IIgs as well as any copyrights that Wdesignc (the '816
> creator) might hold.  They _do_ have a core one could license for PGA/CPLD
> units.  If you dont mind tossing bux in for the core and putting it on a
> highspeed PLD of sorts, it's not unrealistic to guess at 100mhz+ operation.
> <grin>..
> 
> For more info on our beloved '816 CPU, check out http://www.wdesignc.com
> 
> -Jonas
> =)

What about an embedded processor like a 386 or 486 running an optimized
IIGS core.  Virtual memory would be easier considering the 386 and up
has it built into the chip.  Then you would have a super fast processor
using cheap hardware.  You could have an effective 4 gigabyte address
space!  Well, something like that anyway.