Re: Why no Appletalk on IIc+?

[David Wilson <david@uow.edu.au>]

email@DELETE_THIS.luddite.no-ip.com (Simon Williams) writes:
>Greg Andrzejewski <pressyourluck85@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Don't judge too quickly, this is not another "why can't I use appletalk with
>> my IIc?" post. I was just reading the thread about booting a IIe from a G3
>> and wondered why Apple didn't think to add Appletalk support in the IIc+?
>> Does anyone have a reason? Apathy?
>> 
>> -Greg 

>I'm pretty sure it was planned and I think there's even a bit of
>AppleTalk code in ROM, but I don't recall why it was abandoned... 

There was some AppleTalk support code in the UniDisk 3.5 ROM version of the
IIc but it was dropped in favour of the RAMdisk in later versions. Unlike
the IIgs, the slots in the IIc have fixed functions:

Slot #		Original	UniDisk 3.5	Memory Exp and IIc+
------		--------	-----------	-------------------
1		Printer		Printer		Printer
2		Modem		Modem		Modem
3		80 col		80 col		80 col
4		Mouse		Mouse		RAMDisk
5		?		SmartPort	SmartPort
6		5.25 FDD	5.25 FDD	5.25 FDD
7		ext FDD boot	AppleTalk stub	Mouse

As you can see there is no available slot to put AppleTalk into on a IIc+.

Furthermore, to do AppleTalk properly (like the IIgs) would have required
the replacement of the serial chip (6551) with the Zilog SCC making the IIc+
less compatible with the IIc (the original intention was to have an external
converter box).
-- 
David Wilson  School of IT & CS, Uni of Wollongong, Australia