Re: New Apple II (was Apple's next move ...)

[dalloff@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Dave Althoff)]

TomZ is right...with Apple building high-power Macintoshes, everyone else
building high-power PC-type machines, and Sun and SGI building really high
power graphic workstations...and with these high power machines coming
waaaay down in price, what is the advantage to building a Super-GS with
lots of memory, big hard drive, VGA display, etc.?  Apart from ][e/IIgs
compatibility, what does this machine provide that the user can't get on
another platform?

Personally, I think the more saleable option would be a laptop-GS, along
the lines of a fully-equipped "stock" GS today.  Consider, for instance,
the following configuration--

Integrated flat-panel color display
8Mb RAM
500Mb-1.0Gb SCSI hard drive, internal
Built-in SCSI controller with SCSI port
Accelerated 65C816 CPU
Internal 1.44Mb SuperDrive and controller
The usual assortment of IIgs I/O ports

Such a machine would be an adequately powerful laptop computer for most
users as a second machine, particularly for people who have already sunk
$3000+ into a desktop PowerMacintosh system.  Particularly if it is
configured in such a way that the computer can be hooked up via SCSI to
the Macintosh SCSI port, its disk drive recognized as another device on
the Mac SCSI chain, making it possible to effortlessly transfer files from
the HFS partition on the internal drive to the desktop machine, and back
again.

Why would someone buy such an underpowered machine?  Simple.  Because such
a machine offers file compatibility with the expensive desktop machine and
full connectivity, and enough power to get the job done...but unlike those
Pentium notebooks, such a machine could be profitably priced near the $500
price point.  I mean, just consider the CPU cost:
Pentium 100:        $349.95
Pentium 90:         $319.95
Pentium 75:         $209.95
80486DX2/66:        $109.95
65C02:              $  5.95

Hmmm...I don't have a current price for the 65C816.  But you see what I
mean...

--Dave Althoff, ][.
-- 
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