gregp@pro-carolina.cts.COM (Greg Prevost) (05/12/88)
Here is some info I picked up off one of the boards I call. Whether it is
true or not I leave up to you to decide.
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Apple IIGS Plus info:
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I got a wonderful little package from apple this afternoon: the long-awaited
GS+. Boy, this machine is AWESOME!
Here are a couple of the new changes.
faster processor. I don't know how fast it is, as big A didn't include
much technical information with the machine. it looks like it is about 3
times the speed of the normal gs. speeds can be selected in the control
panel, as normal, fast, and the new speed, aptly labeled "faster". the
graphics fly at this new speed. there is still no hardware graphics
chip, which is a bit of a dissapointment, but the new speed makes that
irrelevant.
memory. we've got 256k of ROM, with most of the toolsets included. the
machine boasts 768k of RAM, 512k of "fast", 128k of "slow", and 128k of
dedicated sound RAM.
sound. the buzzing noises of the sound chip are no more. the higher
amount of sound RAM will definately be an advantage.
graphics. apple has given us three new super hires modes. a 320x200
mode with 256 colors/line, a 640x200 mode with 16 colors/line,
a 320x400 mode with 16 colors/line and a 640x400 mode, with 4 colors
per line. the new 400 resolutions flutter quite a bit on my sony
rgb monitor. I have not yet seen them on an apple monitor. the new
vgc has also done wonders for the clarity of the graphics, both old
and new. they stand out in vibrant colors, making the old gs look
sickly and pale.
ports. the new gs has a built-in scsi port on the back. this is
intended for use with either a hard drive or a cd ROM player.
slots. slots can now be moved hither and fro, depending on
what you want where. you can have a card physically in slot 1, and
have it mapped to slow 7, which is a big help if you have a RAM
battery card.
peripherals. when the new gs is running in native mode, all
the peripherals are now slot-independent. you can use the
mouse and a slot-4 hard drive at the same time. you can put a
parallel card in slot one, for your II software, and still use
the serial port for your image-writer when running gs software.
this can be set in the control panel so you can have the gs
choose your preference depending on the mode.
prodos 16. prodos 16 no longer cares which slot/drive a volume
is in, so the new cpu has no slot/drive limit on storage. The
Smartport limit for devices is still 127, but I know no one who
would have use for 127 storage devices.
mac. it was hinted at that apple may be developing a macintosh
card for the gs and gs+, allowing the computer to run the majority
of macintosh software.
IBM: there is also a planned ms-dos card, but my personal
thoughts are that its high price tag ($1054 developer) will drive
consumers to the applied eng. card of the same concept. this
is a definate product, unlike the mac card.
availability. the letter I found in the gs+ package noted that the
gs+ is only available to a few special "seeded" developers at
the current time. no announcement is planned for applefest, although
it might be possible for the next fest in San Fransisco. the price
range will be $279 for a gs to gs+ upgrade (our price). dealers will
pay $284, and should be available to the public in time for the
winter holidays.
please don't spread this special information around, as apple would
not be happy if this got out to the public. I will post more info
as I discover it. this new machine has alot of potential!
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More info:
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( Subj ) Apple.stuff.1 ( Brd ) Apple IIGS Board
( From ) Sound Wave (#2) ( To: ) All
( Date ) 05/06/88 11:34:00 PM ( Num ) 127 of 128
News of the world and Apple Computer Incorporated --
It seems that there definately *IS* a faster IIgs, and possibly more than just
one unit. From what I have been able to piece together from various people who
either work for the company, develop products, or are tied to either of those 2
groups, we (The Apple II community) should expect a "newer" IIgs around the
first fiscal quarter of apple's new year. (Apple's Fiscal Year ends Sept 30,
and there have been rumblings from Cupertino that Apple would not release a new
GS cpu this YEAR, meaning the fiscal year.) A good bet for the time and place
for either a "pre-introduction" or even a formal announcement would be at the
San Francisco AppleFest, to be held towards the end of September.
The problem that the II group seems to be experiencing is that there is
someone *VERY* high up in marketing who wants to kill the "Fast GS" project.
Though the speeds of the "fast" machines range from 5.6 Mhz to 7.x Mhz, no one
seems willing to talk about the possibility of a faster GS. We can only hope
that someone will relieve this person of his position before he does any more
irreparable damage to the II line. (go check the sales figures quickly and you
will find that the IIgs has outsold the Mac II by a margin of 3:1, but this
isn't really a terribly valid point since the Mac II has been out a shorter
time... but still, the IIgs has sold enough units so that it has, in 18 months,
sold almost half a many macs in existence... and THAT took 4 years to
accomplish!) Part of this problem that this marketing guy has with the "Fast
GS" is that there was a guy who either works for the company or is an outside
developer (I haven't nailed down which) that jury-rigged a IIgs to go about 15
Mhz using a special preview gallium arsenide version of the gs cpu (or beyond,
the 65832 is available to the military). The marketing folks are also scared
that it will bite into the mac's market... they don't seem to realize that the
markets are very distinct, but then again, that's their loss.
While there had been speculation that the fabled "ProDOS/16 V2.0" project
had been completely shelved, people were only half correct:
ProDOS 2.0 *HAS NOT* been shelved. At the recent developers comference
held at the end of april, Apple showed select developers what the new ProDOS
could do. The reactions I heard ranged from "Amazing" to "Incredible." The
new OS is also downwardly compatible with the "old" ProDOS. From yet other
sources I pieced together another part of the puzzle: It seems that while
Apple was trying to develop the CD-ROM drive it realized that it was going to
be hard, if not impossible to expand ProDOS to the extent that it could address
all that capacity on the CD-ROM and remain completely backward compatible, they
did the *BETTER* thing and have ported the Macintosh HFS (Hierarchical Filing
System) over to the IIgs. That's right, ProDOS/16 V2.0 will be able to read
*AND WRITE* to Mac disks. This is where that rumor around mid-january came
from that ProDOS 2.0 had been killed. In fact, the *OLD* ProDOS 2.0 project
HAD been killed, and the ProDOS HFS project instituted in its place. The HFS
project is nearly done, so I would expect an actual product sometime mid-summer
(not AppleFest, sorry). HFS would be an interesting concept because then the
two machine lines would be running the same operating system... this opens a
lot of doors. For once, bravo Apple!
end -- part 1
( Subj ) Apple.stuff.2 ( Brd ) Apple IIGS Board
( From ) Sound Wave (#2) ( To: ) All
( Date ) 05/06/88 11:35:00 PM ( Num ) 128 of 128
It also seems that some folks from the management at Claris Corp (Apple's
software division which usually specializes in Mac products while leeching the
profits from AppleWorks to fund further mac development... grrr) got to see
pre-beta copy of StyleWare's unannounced "GS Works" integrated IIgs package,
and were so impressed by it that they want to buy the product from the company.
Claris was evidently *SERIOUSLY* impressed with what GS Works could do and
wants to make it the next AppleWorks (yes, yet another cash cow so that Apple
II products can finance Mac product development.. a sorry state of affairs, but
something Apple II users have grown used to). If Claris buys it, I wonder if
they will kill the product (to keep it from becoming competitive withe the Mac)
or actually market it. Let's all hope that *IF* they do buy it that Kevin
Harvey (the pres of StyleWare) has the brains to put a clause in the contract
*FORCING* Claris to put it out...
Well, that's all for now. I'm sure there will be some interesting stuff at
AppleFest, but don't look for anything official from Apple. The interesting
stuff will all be at back-room showings of secret products and murmurings at
the official parties... see you there!
Sound Wave
ps - please distribute this far and wide, ESPECIALLY to anyone remotely
involved with Apple Computer.... there may yet be some hope..taro@uhccux.UUCP (05/12/88)
~~~~~~~
Just how reliable is this info. It sounds all to good to be true, kinda like
a GS wish list, and the note said to not make this public? I wish this were
all true, but I am inclined not to believe it. A Mac emulator board? Now
why would they want to do that, being so afraid of having the GS intrude on
the Mac market, but maybe they're becoming enlightened. Who knows, maybe
Companies are begining to think of the customer, naaaah.
If this were all true, rest assured I'd be one of the first in line for the
upgrade.
___
|N|
--
"Mad as a hen wetter...goodbye and good day. THPPT" -Opus
Taro Nobusawa taro@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu
taro@uhccux.BITNET
Compu$erve 71071,322 {ihnp4,uunet,ucbvax}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!taroscott@geowhiz.UUCP (Scott Kempf) (05/12/88)
Before we all get excited and start spreading rumors:
Can anyone verify this.
Apple still claims they are not working on a faster //gs.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Scott Kempf Blue itself teaches us blue. -Bill Ranson
MAIL: 1302 Rutledge St., Madison, WI 53703 PHONE: (608) 255-6205 (home)
UUCP: {seismo, topaz, harvard, ihnp4}!uwvax!geowhiz!scott
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BITNET: scott%geowhiz.uucp%spool.cs.wisc.edu@wiscvm.bitnetlaba-4an@web4d.berkeley.edu.UUCP (05/13/88)
In article <782@geowhiz.UUCP> scott@geowhiz.UUCP (Scott Kempf) writes: > > Before we all get excited and start spreading rumors: > > Can anyone verify this. > > Apple still claims they are not working on a faster //gs. Yes, let's get this story checked out... it sounded a bit like The Unknown User on a bad drug trip :-) I can believe that Apple would be going over to the Mac HFS system (the way they worship that machine...). It might be better that way (easy transfer of files, FASTER DISK STARTUP TIMES, etc.), although I'm not sure what that is going to do to a hard disk (talk to First Class Peripherals about an HFS partition...) Let's go to bed tonight with our fantasies calmly locked in place (but it doesn't hurt to dream a little, does it?) -- laba-4an@widow.berkeley.edu (Andy McFadden) "No matter where you go, there you are."