Re: Possibility of open-sourcing GS/OS

[et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Black)]

"Michael J. Mahon" (mjmahon@aol.com) writes:

>> First off it should be noted that the DMA is not fully implemented from 
>> the slots because the the CYA chip was designed to cripple the IIgs and 
>> the 65816's capability so it wold not compete with the Mac.
> 
> Given the high price of >4MB RAM at the time, it seems just as
> likely that the designers just never considered >4MB likely for
> a IIgs...
> 
That's a really good point, given the Mac Plus, more or less current with
the IIGS, could only handle 4megs of RAM.  Even the Mac Classic, which came
as the replacement for the Mac Plus, could only handle 4megs.  The Mac LC,
which came out in 1990, I think that's right, could only handle 10megs, and
came with 4megs.  There were other Macs, like the II and the SE/30, that could
handle quite a bit more ram, but they didn't come standard with anything much
more than 4megs.

Realistically, Apple didn't think there was much need for a lot of RAM
at the time. Or really, it's only with time that we have come to consider
4megs a puny amount.  When the IIGS was current, I was running a Radio
Shack Color Computer III, and had upgraded it from the standard 128K to
512K, and running OS-9 to make use of the extra memory.  It was more
than enough RAM.  Gee, when I added a 3.5" drive, that 720k of disk
space held not only the operating system but all the applications I was
regularly using.

   Michael