Re: Please help me pick out a II GS

[david@uow.edu.au (David Wilson)]

CHRIS MORSE <chris@invalid.net> writes:
>I've got an Apple //c+ and plan on picking up an Apple //e (Platinum)
>and an Apple II GS.  I had some questions about the //GS.

>(1)  Should I get a ROM 03?  Does it really matter?  What's "wrong"
>with a ROM 01 GS?

If you have the option of one or the other for the same price - take the ROM03.

ROM01 has 128KB fast RAM and 128KB slow RAM = 0.250 MB (aka 256KB motherboard)
ROM03 has 1024KB fast RAM and 128KB slow RAM = 1.125 MB (aka 1MB motherboard)

ROM03 has "quieter" motherboard - less noise in sound output.
ROM03 can mirror text page 2 in hardware - ROM01 needs to copy it
in an interrupt handler (very few programs actually need this).

AppleTalk on ROM03 only takes up 1 slot instead of 2 on the ROM01.
On a ROM03 you can use a card in slot 4 and not loose the use of the
mouse in GS/OS.

Numerous bug fixes between ROM01 and ROM03 (toolbox routines are fixed in
RAM by GS/OS 6.x for both versions).

>(2) What sort of GS memory card?  I've seen a bunch on eBay that say
>fully populated, and it means 1MB.  Can't you get up to an 8MB card? I
>think I saw another one recently that was 4MB.

1MB is standard Apple card (usually).
4MB is the maximum officially supported by Apple (3rd party manufacturers only).
8MB is maximum (including whatever is on the motherboard) but can
cause problems if you have cards which do DMA.

If you have a ROM03 then you can have 1MB on m/b + 4MB on card to give 5MB that
is compatible with all cards.
--
David Wilson  School of IT & CS, Uni of Wollongong, Australia