nicholaA@moravian.EDU (05/08/89)
>I didn't see any significant new releases. Word Perfect has version 2.0D out, >and GS/OS System 5.0 was announced...it isn't expected to be availiable for >quite some time. They were quite pleased (as I was) with the QuickDraw II >performance increase. It's roughly double the speed of the old routines. >AppleTalk support is also in System 5.0. 'Scuse me. If you have gone to any of the technical sessions, you would have heard the melodious sound of one Jim Mensch of Apple Computer warbling about how some of the routines in Quickdraw II are now as much as 14 TIMES faster than the routines on system 4.0 :-) To just what you've said in summing up what the IIgs software team has done with System 5.0 does it an outrageous injustice -- System 5.0 has had most of it's major components speeded up, the tools rewritten, another major Load file format included for the loader (giving an effective 4x speed improvement in that alone), and another FST included: AppleShare. Almost every major (and minor) toolset has been rewritten for resources and the resource manager also. Quite a bit of work, and not very easy to sum up as you (and I) have so in-eloquently done. > Zip Chip announced their Zip Chip >GS and a new Zip Chip for the Apple II+/e/c. Both chips run at 8MHz. They >didn't have a prototype of either one availiable to peer at. Yes, they did. I asked to physically *SEE* the chip, so they took the cover off 1 of the 8 Mhz machines and let me look. It's real alright. -- what really made me a believer was when they let us take one over to our booth on loan and plug it into our IIe (at the L&L Productions booth). The thing is bloody incredible. It's more than twice as fast as a IIgs! (I should have done some timings off of shrinkit, but alas, I forgot, for I was forever running about the show... :-) I believe the cost of the chip was going to be $249 and they were going to ramp up production in June or early-July. (^^ that was about the 8Mhz IIe/c part, BTW) -- As for the Zip-GS, Zip SAID that they would probably be ready to ship around the time of the next show. I never got to see _that_ puppy, but if it's 1/2 as good as the 8 Mhz Zip IIe part, it'll be fantastic. From what I understand, it'll be a card initially, and then after it's shrunk (no pun intended :) then it'll be just the chip unless you need the ability to do DMA (Like with the OKS Kache card, which I whole-heartedly recomend), in which case a small card will be needed in addition to the chip. No big deal, and a whole lot less heat than the TWGS furnace. >AppleLink PE had a booth, but I didn't get to see any Apple Forum >leaders...There were some pretty customer relations ladies there :) Yes, we were there. (well, I'm not an AFL, but I'm an AFC, does that count? :-) Seriously, though, Kent Fillmore (AFP Kent) was there, as was the system designer, and for AFL's we had Vince Cooper (AFL Vince), AFL Marty, AFL TracyP, AFA Scott, and a host of others. Those who were there at the AppleLink/BCS party saturday night realize that there were MANY AFL's/AFA's/AFC's from AppleLink there. They broadcast the hardware conference that night from the party (albeit up on the second floor -- GS's don't "get down" too well on the dance floor.. heh :-) >They say "5 weeks". I didn't see Sword of Sodan. Sword of Sodan was at least talked about in the games discussion. Neil Shapiro was on that panel. Shucks, I really wanted to talk to him, too! :( And, to top it off, if you had attended and hung around after the technical issues conference around 11:30 on sunday, you would have gotten a public peek at Rastan/GS. >Overall, there wasn't anything really interesting. It was like going to an >Apple Mall. Hmmm... I really didn't think the whole thing was that bad. I had a good time, learned alot of new stuff, got to meet and talk to alot of people that are highly interested in the same stuff I am, got to figure out a few problems I've been having with my system, and got to get a first-hand peek at System 5.0, which surpasses anything we've ever had for the IIgs before. Overall, a great experience. Perhaps you expected to be grabbed by the cookie monster and shoved into a dark room where you would be presented with all of apple's "secrets" and be informed of all the wonderful things going on for the IIgs. It doesn't work that way. You get out of the experience what you put into it -- you had to dig a little and talk to a few people to find out what was really going on. andy PS-If none of you have seen the OKS Kache card and you have a need for high speed disk i/o, please do so. The card they make does DMA to get the info from the disk into the cpu, so it FLIES when it reads a disk (Hd, 3.5" drive, or 5.25" drive). It's so fast that when booting, it takes roughly 13 seconds to boot into the system 4.0 finder from a 3.5" drive! If it has booted before, then it boots from the cached image, and only takes a mere 6 seconds to get to the finder. Check into the card if you are a real "need-speed" person. Disclaimer: I don't work for, nor am I affiliated with any of these companies (except L&L Productions). The views expressed herein are solely my own, and have their own look-and-feel. "So There." ---- Andy Nicholas CsNET: shrinkit@moravian.edu Box 435 InterNET: shrinkit%moravian.edu@relay.cs.net Moravian College uucp: rutgers!lafcol!lehi3b15!mc70!shrinkit Bethlehem, PA 18018 GEnie: shrinkit ---- AppleLink PE: shrinkit
dseah@wpi.wpi.edu (David I Seah) (05/09/89)
In response to my posting on AppleFest, <8905080625.AA08559@batman.moravian.edu> nicholaA@moravian.EDU writes: [Lots of stuff deleted everywhere] >'Scuse me. If you have gone to any of the technical sessions, you would have >heard the melodious sound of one Jim Mensch of Apple Computer warbling about >how some of the routines in Quickdraw II are now as much as 14 TIMES faster >than the routines on system 4.0 :-) (you know you're in trouble if you see a 'Scuse me in a followup) >To just what you've said in summing up what the IIgs software team has done >with System 5.0 does it an outrageous injustice -- System 5.0 has had most >of it's major components speeded up, the tools rewritten, another major >Load file format included for the loader (giving an effective 4x speed >improvement in that alone), and another FST included: AppleShare. Almost >every major (and minor) toolset has been rewritten for resources and >the resource manager also. Quite a bit of work, and not very easy to sum >up as you (and I) have so in-eloquently done. I didn't get to attend any of the technical sessions. I was with two other people, a II+ owner and a hard-drive-hunter. I took the "Speed Tour" :( I'm sorry that I pissed off everybody. GS/OS WAS a significant announcement, and I'm sure I glossed over all the details that have since been revealed. I posted my impressions of my first AppleFest so that other people on the net would have some idea of what was "new". I was also trying to stay awake and remember what I had seen and type all at the same time right after I got back from Boston...so eloquence went right out the window :) I humbly apologize to the developers of GS/OS for downplaying the significance of their feat. I'm sorry I missed all the AppleLink forum leaders...I wasn't expecting them to be in glass cases with coinslots. I *knew* they were afoot, I just didn't get to see any! I didn't mean to insinuate that they were not there at all. >Overall, a great experience. Perhaps you expected to be grabbed by the cookie >monster and shoved into a dark room where you would be presented with all >of apple's "secrets" and be informed of all the wonderful things going on >for the IIgs. It doesn't work that way. You get out of the experience >what you put into it -- you had to dig a little and talk to a few people >to find out what was really going on. Great for you perhaps. I *was* hoping to catch a glimpse of the cookie monster, or at least see one HUMONGOUS new announcement. Next time I will dig more for the kind of details I overlooked this time around. Thanks for enlightening me. Dave Seah (dseah@wpi.wpi.edu, dseah@wpi.bitnet)