toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) (01/15/90)
Here's some stuff I would like to see from Apple, some reasonable, some not so reasonable. Most of all I'd like to see Apple actively defending its home and educational market share instead of stalling until the Low Cost Color Mac is _finally_ ready. I bet they could get a redesigned low cost gs out the door within the year if they only had the go-ahead from upstairs. 0 (should already have this). Update turnaround so that 5.0.3 would have already fixed the SCSI Manager bug. (How do I use Installer to de- update back to the 4.0 SCSI Manager??) 1. HyperCard gs. Please tell me the rumors are true. 2. Enhanced Quickdraw to support the Video Overlay Card's 640x400 Interlaced SHR mode. I would buy the VOC for that alone. (Damn the flicker, full aspect ratio ahead!) 3. Better, a programmable video board along the lines of the VOC that can drive almost any monitor (NTSC to Mac II) and would support MORE COLORS! GenLock with a frame grabber would also be nice. (I know, third party.) 4. A SCSI card that supports DMA like the Fast-Kache from OKS. (For SCSI you don't need a sophisticated hardware cache, just a FAST interface. Let the driver or Diversi-Cache handle the rest. 5. Best of all, a NEW MOTHERBOARD that is really WORTH BUYING (as opposed to upgrading, which is "unsupported" even though you could probably get the new ROMs and patch them a bit and then put them on a gs-ram Ultra.) I wonder how much trouble it would be to get a bunch of third parties together and license the technology necessary to produce a new gs that has at least some of the following: a. Transwarp built in. Better, make it so the CPU, clock, and cache are user-expandable when faster parts become available. (I believe Transwarp already has this property.) I heard Bill Mensch had some 12 Mhz samples with him at AppleFest. b. Redesigned chipset: i) Scrap the Mega //. Let's see a real programmable video chip. ii) Improved access to the DOC. (Use RDY, for god's sake!) iii) DMA Co-processor to SCC (for Appletalk), DOC, video, etc. iv) Get a chunky-pixel blitter. I'm sick of Amiga smugpusses. v) Use the 65816 VP pin to get real vectored interrupts/traps. c. SIMMs on the motherboard. 256k, 1M, 4M. Ram from 00-BF. (12 megs!) d. A fast bus of some kind. Some people already have ideas about this. (Bank $C0?) e. SCSI and SWIM with dedicated controller. f. Stereo decoder built in. Use CA3 from the DOC. Give the DOC more ram, or at least make refilling the sound buffers trivial (DMA?) for long sound files (i.e. not instruments). g. A QUIET FAN. I have a Delta DC Brushless, Model DFA0812L, 12v at 100ma, by Delta Electronic Ind. Co., Ltd. which I adapted to my //+'s 4 pin video connector. This fan is quieter than an Apple 3.5 and it moves air better than the Apple //gs System Fan, which I unfortunately bought for my gs. Comments, flames, kudos, all invited. Some of this probably sounds a bit far fetched but that's because I'm skipping details; I think most of this is pretty feasible. (I've got some ideas on how to actually do some of it and if it could get me a summer position at Apple I'd be delighted to discuss by E-mail.) Todd Whitesel toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu
SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (01/16/90)
On Mon, 15 Jan 90 02:37:13 GMT you said: >Here's some stuff I would like to see from Apple, some reasonable, some not so > >1. HyperCard gs. Please tell me the rumors are true. HyperCard-GS is scheduled to be announced in March (as with any Vaporware product, believe it when you see it; even some 'announced' software isn't 'available'). On the other hand, the rumor that HC-gs will include an HFS FST appears to be just that (converting Mac stacks to IIgs stacks will require a Mac :-( >5. Best of all, a NEW MOTHERBOARD that is really WORTH BUYING (as opposed to > upgrading, which is "unsupported"... Don't hold your breath. Apparently Apple has renigged on J. Sculley's promised "new Apple 2 CPU" unless you're willing to buy that PR Department bafflegab about ROM 03 being *ahem* a new(?) CPU (and there's this bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you too...). > a. Transwarp built in... Chances of that depend on solving the production quality control problems that are limiting the quantities of faster 65816 chips. There's a reason why deliveries from AE and Zip are so sloooooowwww. AND, the speedier 65816's have some design glitches that require Transwarp firmware to impose a slow down when some specific instruction sequences are executed (ain't that a hoot?). /s Murph <Sewall%UConnVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.Edu> [Internet] or ...{psuvax1 or mcvax}!uconnvm.bitnet!sewall [UUCP] + Standard disclaimer applies ("The opinions expressed are my own" etc.)
rlw@ttardis.UUCP (Ron Wilson) (01/18/90)
In article <13273@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>, toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) writes: > >Here's some stuff I would like to see from Apple, some reasonable, some not so >reasonable. Most of all I'd like to see Apple actively defending its home and >educational market share instead of stalling until the Low Cost Color Mac is >_finally_ ready. I bet they could get a redesigned low cost gs out the door >within the year if they only had the go-ahead from upstairs. > >3. Better, a programmable video board along the lines of the VOC that can drive > almost any monitor (NTSC to Mac II) and would support MORE COLORS! > GenLock with a frame grabber would also be nice. (I know, third party.) The VOC already has GenLock - but the frame grabber would be much apreciated. > f. Stereo decoder built in. Use CA3 from the DOC. Give the DOC more > ram, or at least make refilling the sound buffers trivial > (DMA?) for long sound files (i.e. not instruments). The Ensoniq DOC can access 2 banks of 64K - unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be able to allow a sample to cross bank boundries - it's very difficult to test: the GS's DOC only has 64K; the Ensonic Mirage is difficult to work with without an in-circuit-emulator for the 6809 CPU; therefore, I'm not sure whether my experiments are properly designed. > >Todd Whitesel >toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu - Ron Wilson rlw@ttardis sharkey!cfctech!ttardis!rlw uunet!edsews.eds.com!rel!ttardis!rlw