dr@ski.UUCP (David Robins) (09/11/86)
From today's San Francisco Chronicle Technology column by John Eckhouse:
"An Inside Look at Some Secret New Apple Computers"
(paraphrased)
Apple Computer will introduce the newest member of its 10-year-old
Apple ][ family on Monday (Sept 15.) The Cupertino company will
follow that up with at least two new members of the Macintosh family
in January.
The //GS will use "a fast 65SC819 microprocessor chip".
The "GS" stands for the custom-designed graphics and sound chips.
-Apple will introduce a new high-resolution color monitor that can
really show off the machine's graphics.
New outer shell will be silvery-gray, referred to as "platinum".
First Apple ][ witha detachable keyboard.
Built-in mouse and SCSI port.
The computer will be "fully compatible" with the //e, but has some
minor incompatibility problems with the //c, and some /c programs
won't run on the //GS.
Apple very security conscious about this; used different codenames.
Some people were shown with 5-1/4 inch floppy, some were shown with
built-in 3-1/2 inch drive. Author feels Apple will offer a
double-sided 5-1/4 inch drive as standard equipment to maintain
absolute compatibility with the //e.
Apple's prices will be $999 for the computer, and $495 for the new
color monitor. If so, Apple may cut the price of the //e with monitor
to $1000, and drop the //c as low as $600.
Current //e owners: APlle reportedly will offer //e owners the chance
to upgrade; total board swap may cost as much as $650, however.
New Macs:
2 or 3 machines. High-end version as engineering workstation.; cros
between Xerox Star and Commodore Amiga. 8-1/2 x 11 display, 68020
32-bit CPU., double the resolution of the current Mac. Price bet.
$3995 and $6995.
High-performance Mac will take the place of the current Mac Plus.
Phase-out of the Mac 512K enhanced machine, use the new Mac Plus as
entry-level Mac. Some people say this lower-end machine will be the
open-architecture Mac, with internal slots. Price bet. $2695 and
$2995. Some say there will be 3 Macs: a closed-architecture machine,
a slotted Mac, and the workstation Mac. Another market analyst
forcast a possible "MacStingy" at $995, the slotted "WorkMac" at
$2995, and a "MacEngine" eng'g workstation at $4995.
--
====================================================================
David Robins, M.D.
Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Foundation
(previously known as: Smith-Kettlewell Institute of Visual Sciences)
2232 Webster St; San Francisco CA 94115
415/561-1705 (voice)
{ihnp4,qantel,dual}!ptsfa!ski!dr
The opinions expressed herein do not reflect the opinion of the Institute!dlc@lanl.ARPA (Dale Carstensen) (09/18/86)
The September 15 E. E. Times has a front page article which continues to most of two inside pages (except the ad for Tektronix) about the Apple II GS. A picture of Curtis Sasaki with the mother board, and an inset with the special chips on the mother board highlighted are included. Sasaki is "the Apple program manager responsible for the engineering of the GS." But the interesting part that wasn't in the pre-announcement speculation is that the sound chip is licensed from Ensoniq. EET says it has 32 oscillators which allow up to 15 voices at one time, and 64K bytes are dedicated to it. It will be able to sample as well as synthesize.