aiiadict@gmail.com wrote:
On Jan 24, 8:53 pm, "mmphosis" <markst...@mail.com> wrote:If? the Apple II was continued...The C-ONE was supposed to be all of these things, reconfigurable too.. maybe not lower power consumption though... The reconfiguration ability is especially interesting to users... it offers "unlimited" upgrades... but.. someone has to configure it one way in the first place! (and make it available for people to try it) (and there has to be a device for people to try it on that is "affordable") and then somebody has to come up with a better idea, and RE-configure it.
The essential problem for reconfigurable computers is having to create an entire software world--unless you "reconfigure" it to be compatible with some (pre-)existing platform that already has a world of software. I remember when Raytheon introduced a machine with variable microcode--potentially a boon to system designers--and then found that if any customer actually made more than a slight extension, they had to re-create all the system software for the modified machine, plus any application software that they needed! -michael NadaNet networking for Apple II computers! Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."