todd@mips.UUCP (Todd Basche) (11/24/85)
My brother has an Apple IIC and is generally quite happy with it. He is now looking to buy some more exciting boards and use them with his computer. Boards like speech I/O, household minders,etc,etc. He has discovered(of course) that the IIC is fine but NOT expandable. He was told (By Apple) of the existence of a company called : " SICO Consumer Electronics " . They are purported to make a Apple IIC to Apple IIE convertor. This would allow you to have a chassis that you could populate with Apple IIE cards and cable over to your Apple IIC . Sounds like a good idea... If anyone out there has any info on such a beast please let me know. Thanks, Todd Basche MIPS Computer Systems 415-960-1200
kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath) (11/27/85)
In article <237@mips.UUCP> todd@mips.UUCP (Todd Basche) writes: >My brother has an Apple IIC and is generally quite happy with it. >He is now looking to buy some more exciting boards and use them with his >computer. Boards like speech I/O, household minders,etc,etc. >He has discovered(of course) that the IIC is fine but NOT expandable. > >If anyone out there has any info on such a beast please let me know. > >Thanks, >Todd Basche >MIPS Computer Systems >415-960-1200 I don't know about the conversion, but I do know that several third party vendors do make expansion cards for the //c. They include a Z80 card, a memory expansion card (both from Applied Engineering), a speech/sound synthesis card from the guys who make the mockingboard (called the mockingboard c) and I believe a 65816 or somesuch number microprocessor board from (I think) Legend. I'm not sure, as I don't have the advertisements here. You can look them up in any magazine that has flashy advertisements, such as A+, InCidar and Nibbles (For real info, try Open-Apple). You will find that there are several makers of these boards. Also, I hear tell, from semi-reliable sources whom I cannot recall right now, that Apple _may_ honor warrenty repairs on //c's that have these third party upgrades. Apple finally learned that no matter how "closed" their architecture is, _someone_ will do something to improve it. I have no connection with anyone mentioned here except myself, and I'm sure many of the names are trademarked. Sean Kamath
kenyon@nmtvax.UUCP (11/29/85)
In article <> todd@mips.UUCP (Todd Basche) writes: >He was told (By Apple) of the existence of a company called : >" SICO Consumer Electronics " . >They are purported to make a Apple IIC to Apple IIE convertor. >This would allow you to have a chassis that you could populate with >Apple IIE cards and cable over to your Apple IIC . > >Sounds like a good idea... That could be very difficult to do. It would really play havoc with programs written for the //c as many of the internal locations are moved. Things aren't in normal locations as though they were in a slot. In a //c, apple knew where everything was going to be (you can't just throw in a 3.6M 6502) and it appears that io rom swap space doesn't (on a // you can decide which card to look at by telling the others to get out and swaping in the ones you want.) This doesn't appear to happen on a //c. (Note that I used the word "appear." I haven't hacked that hard on a //c, but there is something funky in the roms. If this device does exist, please let me know. I have a friend with a //c that thought it was all he'd ever need. He was wrong. Even with Z-Ram (Z-80 and 1/2 M ram) it isn't enough. He got a subscription to BYTE. I'm afraid he's going to go MS-DOS if I can't save him... -- Robert Kenyon ...ucbvax!unmvax!nmtvax!kenyon Your father was a mother and your hamster smells of eldeberries!
33500911@sdcc13.UUCP ({|lit}) (12/04/85)
In article <886@nmtvax.UUCP> kenyon@nmtvax.UUCP (Rob Kenyon) writes: > That could be very difficult to do. It would really play havoc with > programs written for the //c as many of the internal locations are moved. > Things aren't in normal locations as though they were in a slot. > In a //c, apple knew where everything was going to be (you can't just throw > in a 3.6M 6502) and it appears that io rom swap space doesn't (on a // > you can decide which card to look at by telling the others to get out and > swaping in the ones you want.) This doesn't appear to happen on a //c. > (Note that I used the word "appear." I haven't hacked that hard on a //c, > but there is something funky in the roms.) > Yes, there is something funny in the //c MMU. On regular apples, you must access $CFFF to tell the other cards to stop using the expansion area ($C800-$CFFF). After that, you have to access one of the valid addresses within the ROM of the peripheral card you want to have switched in. If you don't access $CFFF (and depending on how smart your cards are) the old ROM bank is kept in, causing notable havoc. The //c does all this bank switching automatically. If you access one "card", and then another, the $C800-$CFFF area is switched automatically. (You can do this kind of thing when you know that there is one and only one "card" built in for each function (and you know exacly where it will be.)) NOT TO MENTION: More I/O ports and "switches" ($C000-$C0FF) were added to the //c. This may still cause MMU problems. Good luck trying to get the MMU to recognize a 3.6Meg 6502 though. :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) But seriously, by the time you hack through all the address management and I/O problems, you'll have a //e and not a //c. -- - Jim Hayes UCSD. UUCP: {ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax, etc.}!sdcsvax!sdcc13!33500911 ARPA: 33500911%sdcc13@SDCSVAX.ACC.EDU Ma Bell: (619) 450-9316 "Perhaps whoever designed it had eyes that responded to different wavelengths..."