Re: Apple //c++ experiments...

[a2aviator@gmail.com]

On Aug 17, 10:22 am, nyder <nyder...@gmail.com> wrote:
> hmm, wonder if I do this to my laser...

If it's the original Laser 128, nothing. In theory you could get teeny
amount of increase out of some of these things, but nothing good will
come of it.

The Apple II is, like many electronic devices, a victim of it's own
design. Quirks happen in the real world vs. on paper when things are
designed and an awful lot of what people do with the Apple II has
relied on these things. Take for instance, the Basis 108, they cloned
the Apple II based on the reference manual.

It was "too compatible", another example of this is the Franklin Ace
1000 and derivatives. The Apple Cat II modem won't dial because timing
is slightly off on the Franklin motherboard for similar reasons.

The Laser 128EX/2 with the accelerator in it is probably not based
around the same design as the IIc Plus, which is basically, the Zip
Chip in almost discrete form.

My personal thoughts on the Laser/Video Technology clones, is they're
a complete disaster to work on, inside. Wires and guts all over the
place, cruddy construction, soldered down FCC shielding by the ton
because it's such a bad design RF wise. The reason the oscillator
changes work in a IIc Plus is for the same reason they work on a Zip
GSX. The circuit was designed for it.

The same is also possible, in theory, with the sealed Zip Chip unit.
It's not a potted block, it's a ceramic hybrid with bare circuits
under the plastic dome like lid which is just glued down.

DO NOT MESS WITH THIS LID unless YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. This is
not an invitation to mess with your Zip Chip, this is just
informational reference.

Thats not to say you're going to just find a tiny little crystal in
there either.

But a Zip Chip is made up of a 65C02, SRAMs, the Patented circuit, and
a crystal. Stamped. Raw. Which is why they had such a high and sudden
failure rate. When they switched to mounting off the shelf SRAMs on
the bottom of the unit, it was a major improvement. The stuff was not
tested and burned in, so the failure rate that the foundry experiences
was directly passed on to the consumer, for the most part. This made
the Zip Chip very expensive cost of goods wise, because like a
manufacture of stamps out 1,000 SRAMs, 200 of them would not yield
passing results and thus, not be sold.

The numbers used are purely for illustrative purposes only.

tdiaz - apple2 - *not* .com or .net