Re: Is it true that Apple computers can run MS DOS?

[srl968s@nic.smsu.edu (Lin Shawn R)]

: > I'm no expert, but the Apple II series as far as I'm aware has never
: > been able to run MSDOS, but the new Power Macintoshes can, at least to
: > a certain extent.  Anyone else got info on this?

Nearly ALL Macintoshes can run MS-DOS in one form or another.  I forget 
what company it was, the name Insignia Softare seems to sound about 
right... they had the programs Soft PC, Soft AT, SoftWindows, etc.  There 
were versions that ran on anything from a memory upgraded Mac 128k on 
up.  I've never seen it in action but I've read that the version for the 
tiny 68000 Macs emulated an incredibly slow 286 with CGA graphics.  There 
were better versions, I'm not familiar with their features though.  They 
could all utilize Apple's high density drive (if so equipped) and read 
IBM formatted 1.44MB floppies (720k floppies weren't supported, I don't 
think).  There also were various coprocessor cards from companies like 
Orange Micro and a few others that ranged from 8088s to 486s.

: The STOCK AppleII could not run MSDOS, but there was a card produced by 
: the now defunct Applied Engineering that was kind of an IBM on a card. It 
: was only an 8088 or 8086 I think, but it DID work, and according to a 
: friend of mine, faster than an 8086 he had sitting on his desk, and 
: almost as fast as the 80286 he had at work. Something about having the 
: second microprocessor seemed to make the system run faster, since the 
: 808x didn't have to deal with the peripherals and such. That was taken 
: care of by the 65c816.

I had one of those, the newer version that used 256kx4 DRAMs.  It was an 
NEC V30 running at 8 MHz (more specifically 7.something).  I had mine in 
a relatively stock Apple IIGS ROM 3, and either the guy who thought it 
ran fast must have been tripping acid at the time or mine was configured 
wrong.  Since I was nearly an Apple IIGS guru at the time I doubt I had 
it configured wrong... the thing was SLOW!  The 65C816 had to translate 
the PC Transporter's hardware calls to Apple and vice versa.  
Unfortunately due to either the hardware or inefficient programming, it 
was SLOW.  Drive access was unusually slow (floppy drives especially), 
the modem port was slower than normal, and somehow the NEC V30 CPU was 
slow as well.  I also had a CGA IBM PC/XT (the real thing) running at a 
blazing 4.77 MHz and I swear it could have run circles around the PC 
Transporter.  After seeing that and discovering I could pick up a real 
IBM PC/XT for $100 at the time I almost kicked myself for buying that 
stupid PC Transporter for $300.  A good idea, but it needed work.  If you 
want to run MS-DOS regularily it's probably a good idea to forget about 
emulators or coprocessor cards altogether... with the price of PCs being 
so low (I paid $600 for a 486SX/25 system with 760MB SCSI HD, 15" SVGA 
with digital controls, "Green" power management, MPR II low emissions, 
8MB RAM) it's probably not worth forking over big bucks for an emulator.  
Heck, my 2nd "spare" system is a 386DX/40 2/40 w/14" VGA that I invested 
a total of $200.  The only reason to bother with an emulator is if you 
only want to use that format very briefly, or if you NEED to save the 
desktop space for some odd reason, but then if the latter, you can pick 
up a 386SX notebook portable for well under the price of an emulator anyway.
-- 
Shawn Lin  	      "Knock softly, but firmly.  I like soft, firm knockers."
srl968s@nic.smsu.edu 						1-417-883-2169
slin01@ozarks.sgcl.lib.mo.us					Fido: 1:284/64