borton@sdcc3.UUCP (Chris Borton) (01/18/86)
I was told today that Levco announced their 'FastMac' that is running a 68020
at MacWorld Expo yesterday. I think it has 4M RAM with an MMU. Supply is
obviously limited, with a high price tag.
None of this information is confirmed, but I hope someone out there can post
some info/specs on this new wonder, as well as the HyperDrive 2000.
MacWonders keep coming...
--Chris
-----------------
Chris Borton, UC San Diego Undergraduate CS
Micro Consultant, UCSD
borton@ucsd.ARPA or ...!{ucbvax,decvax,noscvax,ihnp4,bang}!sdcsvax!bortonespen@well.UUCP (Peter Espen) (01/20/86)
In article <3140@sdcc3.UUCP>, borton@sdcc3.UUCP (Chris Borton) writes: > I was told today that Levco announced their 'FastMac' that is running a 68020 > at MacWorld Expo yesterday. I think it has 4M RAM with an MMU. Supply is > obviously limited, with a high price tag. > > None of this information is confirmed, but I hope someone out there can post > some info/specs on this new wonder, as well as the HyperDrive 2000. > > MacWonders keep coming... > > --Chris > ----------------- > Chris Borton, UC San Diego Undergraduate CS > Micro Consultant, UCSD > > borton@ucsd.ARPA or ...!{ucbvax,decvax,noscvax,ihnp4,bang}!sdcsvax!borton I talked to the people at the Levco booth and got all there spec sheets, here is a section from there spec sheet..... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The MacSuper 20 series combines the high-end MC68020 processor, the MC68881 floating point arithmetic co-processor, and four megabytes of RAM with the Macintosh, producing the most powerful personal computer available. Running at 16Mhz, and using a full 32-bit wide data path, the MacSuper 20 easily quadruples the speed and revolutionizes the performance of the Mac, making it ideal for sophisticated software and specialized applications. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There is no MMU on the board. All the Ram is accessed without wait states, making for very fast ram access cycle times. The board mounts on the Mac in the same manner as their 2 Meg upgrade boards. The onboard 68000 is completely disabled and the only thing the Mac Motherboard ram is used for is video and I/o stuff. The current price of the board is around $8000-$9000 (Levco said the 68020 chip alone is costing them $500), but this proice should drop as the cost of the 68020/68881 and the one meg ram chips fall in price. Peter Espen
u545601551ea@ucdavis.UUCP (u545601551ea) (01/23/86)
> I was told today that Levco announced their 'FastMac' that is running a 68020 > at MacWorld Expo yesterday. I think it has 4M RAM with an MMU. Supply is > obviously limited, with a high price tag. > > None of this information is confirmed, but I hope someone out there can post > some info/specs on this new wonder... > > > --Chris > ----------------- > Chris Borton, UC San Diego Undergraduate CS > Micro Consultant, UCSD I saw the beast at the Expo run up against a 68000. They were both running a program that displayed and rotated a spherical star map. I don't know the exact ratios, but the Levco machine looked about 3X as fast as the 68K. Levco's machine(called the MacSuper 20 FP) does have 4 MBytes of RAM, but the disks weren't whirring on either machine. The MacSuper 20 FP uses the 68020 and a 68881 Floating Point Coprocessor. The 68881 is directly supported by the 68020; whereas, a 68000 treats the 68881 as a peripheral. The following is from a flyer I got at the show: "The new Macintosh ROMs understand the 68020 and its differences with the 68000. A special software flag is available to detect the type of processor to take advantage of the extra capabilities that the 68020 offers. All software written according to the Macintosh guidelines will operate properly on the MacSuper 20 FP." Sorry, but, being a poor student, I avoid looking a price tags... Another nice thing about the 68020 is that it "remembers" the "last several instructions" that it did; if it needs them again, it doesn't have to go to memory. This and 16MHz speed things up a bit. Levco's flyer has quite a bit of info. about the 68020 and 68881; if there is a demand, I'll post it all(about 4 pages). J.P. (Jon P. Gorrono at deneb at UC at Davis)