ptw@vaxine.UUCP (P. T. Withington) (02/14/84)
... speaking of 1984.
Random Q's and A's:
Q: How much does Lisa/2 benefit from Mac's chips and other internals?
Same ROMs, IWM, PLA's or anything?
A: Yes the SCC is the Zilog chip, perhaps "2 meg serial" should be read "2
1 meg serial", for indeed it does support 2 serial ports. (But is it a
pain to program!)
Q: Will there be an external hard disk for Mac, or is the disk port too Sony?
Q: Who is working on Un*x for Mac? A Blit emulator Mac?
Q: Can anyone describe the "...undisclosed proprietary technique for
phase-locking the 68000 to less expensive memory..."? Does this mean they are
doing software refresh? Or is refresh handled by the video DMA?
-ptwbees@druxy.UUCP (DavisRB) (02/16/84)
Here are some answers to your questions. [ Anything in quotes is taken from "Apple 32: A Developer's Handbook", draft 2/6/84 version 1.3 ] > Q: How much does Lisa/2 benefit from Mac's chips and other internals? > Same ROMs, IWM, PLA's or anything? The Lisa 2 has "hardware advancements for media compatibility", which means the incorporation of the Sony microfloppy. And, "operating system and disk-performance improvements enable Lisa 2 Systems to load and save documents 50 to 200 percent faster." The Mac ROM routines that allow the Lisa 2 to run Mac software are not in ROM in the Lisa 2. I have not read about any improvements to the Lisa motherboard. > A: Yes the SCC is the Zilog chip, perhaps "2 meg serial" should be read "2 > 1 meg serial", for indeed it does support 2 serial ports. (But is it a > pain to program!) Between all the articles I've read, I've seen 1Mbit, 1Mbyte, 2Mbyte and even 4Mbyte. But, in fact, you are correct. Apple says "1MBaud with external clocking", and if one signal change is one bit, then 1Mbit is correct. > Q: Will there be an external hard disk for Mac, or is the disk port too Sony? Hard disks are already in the works from Davong and Tecmar. It isn't clear to me whether they are to use the external disk port, or one of the serial ports. I would hope they use the disk port, since the controller is already set up for that port, and the two serial ports are *supposed* to be for a modem and a printer. > Q: Who is working on Un*x for Mac? A Blit emulator Mac? I'd like an answer to this one, too. As I understand it, unlike the Lisa 2, the Mac was not designed to handle multiple processes. So, I don't know if these things are feasable. Ray Davis AT&T Information Systems Laboratories Denver {ihnp4|hogpc}!druxy!bees (303)538-3991