CS656@OUACCVMB.BITNET (09/17/88)
The most frequent about the GS seems to be the boot time for the system. Several of the PC clones have places to plug in chips containing programs. An eprom version of the system would solve a lot of problems. If it was placed in the correct memory location with a softswitch, like basic, there would be no bootup time. Upgrades would simply be a matter of swapping out chips (something which GS users should be used to :-) ) and Apple could recycle the old ones for the next upgrade. I'm sure that this would necessitate a nominal charge for upgrades but it should be worth it. Is this feasible, or am I missing something? Bob Church CS656@OUACCVMB P.S. I'm extremely upset. Mazda came out with a new model with front wheel drive and a much nicer interior but they want $8000 for the upgrade!
prw@meccsd.MECC.MN.ORG (Paul R. Wenker) (09/20/88)
In article <8809192029.aa03156@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> CS656@OUACCVMB.BITNET writes: >The most frequent about the GS seems to be the boot time for the system. >Several of the PC clones have places to plug in chips containing programs. >An eprom version of the system would solve a lot of problems. If it was placed >in the correct memory location with a softswitch, like basic, there would be >no bootup time. Upgrades would simply be a matter of swapping out chips >(something which GS users should be used to :-) ) and Apple could recycle the >old ones for the next upgrade. I'm sure that this would necessitate a nominal >charge for upgrades but it should be worth it. Is this feasible, or am I >missing something? There is already support built into the GS for up to 512K of ROM disk. In theory, the ROM disk would show up like any other smartport device. I've never seen anybody use the idea, but it seems to have potential. BTW, the new Mac IIx has it's ROMs mounted as SIMMs. Talk about easy ROM upgrades. -Paul Wenker prw@meccsd.MECC.MN.ORG -MECC, Technical Services
shawn@pnet51.cts.com (Shawn Stanley) (09/22/88)
CS656@OUACCVMB.BITNET writes: >The most frequent about the GS seems to be the boot time for the system. >Several of the PC clones have places to plug in chips containing programs. >An eprom version of the system would solve a lot of problems. If it was placed >in the correct memory location with a softswitch, like basic, there would be >no bootup time. Upgrades would simply be a matter of swapping out chips >(something which GS users should be used to :-) ) and Apple could recycle the >old ones for the next upgrade. I'm sure that this would necessitate a nominal >charge for upgrades but it should be worth it. Is this feasible, or am I >missing something? Interesting thought. However, placing the OS in ROM has a few problems associated with it. One is that you must have a way to boot another OS, since not everyone runs the same OS all the time, nor should they be forced to (since they would then be unable to run an entire category of software). Another is that with such a ROM disk that the user can't change, adding DA's, fonts, drivers, icons, etc. would be next to impossible. I don't think requiring that a user burn the changes into the eprom is a good solution. However, there are a lot of options on today's RAM disks for what's called a ROM disk, where you can put your OS & associated files for booting from. UUCP: {rosevax, crash}!orbit!pnet51!shawn INET: shawn@pnet51.cts.com