dr@ski.UUCP (David Robins) (03/12/85)
I just got my new Apple //e Enhancement Kit ($70). This is the kit
you've all been hearing about. There is a 65C02, two new ROM's
to replace the CD and EF Monitor chips, and a new character
generator. The 65C02 is from NCR. The character generator
replaces some of the inverse (or flashing?) chacters with
Mousetext icons, for use with Mouse driven software.
The kit says: "gives the Apple //e many of the advanced features
found in the Apple //c, including faster processing, MouseText
character display, and support of interrupts for applications
such as networking." A very *THIN* (useless) User's Guide came
with the kit. The last page says: if you're a programmer...,
for technical details about the //e Enhancement, see About Your
Enhanced Apple //e: Programmer's Guide (PN. 030-1143-A),
available at no extra cost from your Apple dealer. My dealer
doesn't have this yet.
The kit is a dealer-install only. The new (april) issue of A+
magazine has an article on the //e enhancement. The reason they
say for the dealer installation is that the dealers have agreed
with Apple to get rid of the chips, to ensure that they won't
show up in bootleg Apples. My dealer apparently hasn't heard of
this policy; he sold me a kit as is when I told him our institute
does all our servicing. The article also says that the manual
above has the 65C02 instruction set, and listings for the new
monitor ROMs.
The new character generator does mess up some things. For
example, with Copy ][+, when VIEWing files, the inverse text
characters come out wrong. However, Central Point knew about
that, and in their manual, doing a control-@ sets the characters
to flash mode, with normal ASCII characters where the mouse-icons
were. I alleviated the problem by just going back to the old
character generator, which worked fine with the other new chips.
The article, as well as the new //e Owner's manual, confirm that
all new //e's, shipped after the beginning of March, come with
the upgrade already in, all four chips.
I bought this kit because of the improved interrupts on the //c.
The disassembly I did on the new ROMs is definitely different
from the //c interrupt vectors, so I don't know how "improved"
this really is. I'll have to wait to get the programmer's manual.
This still doesn't seem to do it like Morgan Caffrey's articles have
suggested ( to eliminate the $45 crisscross with DOS ), so we'll
see.
--
David Robins, M.D.; Smith-Kettlewell Institute of Visual Sciencs
2232 Webster St; San Francisco CA 94115
415/561-1705
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