[comp.sys.amiga] 68020 Upgrades & Macintosh

ed@plx.UUCP (Ed Chaban) (12/06/86)

The following is from comp.sys.mac:    Read it and weep!!



>Next year there will be three Mac computers, the MacPlus, Aladdin, and Paris.
>The MacPlus will remain the same except that the retail price will drop to
>$1795.  The MacPlus and the HD 20 SCSI drive will be bundled together for
>$2495.
>
>Aladdin is the code name for Apple's $2795 68020 Mac with double 800k drives.
>It will look like the MacPlus and it will be Apple's last upgrade ($899) for
>                                                          ^^^^^^^   ^^^
>the Mac.  It will have two slots on the motherboard and the keyboard will have
>MS DOS-like function keys.  Apple will bundle the Aladdin with HD 20 SCSI for
>$3495.  The insides should have a 16MHz, 68020 processor, a 68881 math
>                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>co-processor, an 80dpi screen, and an option for 1.6MB double 3.5" drives.
>Compatibility is keeping Apple from a certain January debut.  Memory size was
>not mentioned.
>
>Paris is Apple's $4-7K SUN/AT/VAX killer.  It will have a 68020/68881 processor
>package, 1.6MB 3.5" floppy drives, 80 dpi screen, 8 slots on the motherboard,
>and will use a VME bus.  The basic Paris (no hard disk) will sell for $3995
>               ^^^^^^^
>.in March.  The Paris Workstation will sell for $5495 and will have standard
>40 MB internal HD and a Radius-like full page screen (March or later).  At
>$6995 you can have a color Paris.  Memory size was not mentioned.
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Compatibility is the name of the game with Paris.  Apple wants as many third
>party boards and as much software as possible.  This system CAN support
>                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>multi-tasking, so it has to be as "open" and standard as possible.
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Comments anyone?

Disclaimer: The above is as reported on the MacUnderground.  I am only a
subscriber and know as much as you do about the new Macs.


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					    _____O_____
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srinivas@ut-sally.UUCP (Srinivasan Sankaran) (12/06/86)

In article <385@plx.UUCP>, ed@plx.UUCP (Ed Chaban) writes:
> The following is from comp.sys.mac:    Read it and weep!!
> 
> >Next year there will be three Mac computers, the MacPlus, Aladdin, and Paris.
> >The MacPlus will remain the same except that the retail price will drop to
> >$1795. .......

> >Aladdin is the code name for Apple's $2795 68020 Mac with double 800k drives.

> >.....  The Paris Workstation will sell for $5495 and will have standard
> >40 MB internal HD and a Radius-like full page screen (March or later).  At
> >$6995 you can have a color Paris.  Memory size was not mentioned.
> >^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >Compatibility is the name of the game with Paris.  Apple wants as many third
> >party boards and as much software as possible.  This system CAN support
> >                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >multi-tasking, so it has to be as "open" and standard as possible.
> >^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> Comments anyone?
> 
-----------------------------------
My eyes are sore after weeping. You mean I can not get multi-tasking even 
if I pay $2795 for Aladdin? No color unless I spend $6995 ? Are we still in
the same century where they sell a multi-tasking, color computer with hardware
BitBlt and area fill for less than $1000?
NO........., I can't take any more of these sob stories. Please leave me alone.

-srinivas
ARPA: srinivas@sally.utexas.edu

cmcmanis@sun.uucp (Chuck McManis) (12/07/86)

In article <385@plx.UUCP>, ed@plx.UUCP (Ed Chaban) writes:
> The following is from comp.sys.mac:    Read it and weep!!
I did, and I didn't.
> 
Ed forwards some hearsay from the comp.sys.mac and asks for some comments,
I had sworn off commenting to Ed's stuff but this message was particulary
interesting ...

> >Next year there will be three Mac computers, the MacPlus, Aladdin, and Paris.
> >The MacPlus will remain the same except that the retail price will drop to
> >$1795.  The MacPlus and the HD 20 SCSI drive will be bundled together for
> >$2495.

With those prices they had better close down the Apple IIGS line. They seem
pretty aggressive for Apple but I expect during next year will still be
much higher than the Amiga prices. No mention of memory, I wonder if they
are all 1 Meg machines.

>>
>>Aladdin is the code name for Apple's $2795 68020 Mac with double 800k drives.
>>It will look like the MacPlus and it will be Apple's last upgrade ($899) for
>>the Mac.                                                  ^^^^^^^   ^^^

Ed is emphasizing the upgrade here I believe, apparently he doesn't know about
the CSA board which will upgrade your existing Amiga with double 800K drives
to a 68020 for about the same price. Of course the new Apple won't be able
to run existing software because the Apple O/S can't handle the '020s 
architecture but I am sure every one will offer to trade money for upgrades.

>> ... It will have two slots on the motherboard and the keyboard will have
>>MS DOS-like function keys.  Apple will bundle the Aladdin with HD 20 SCSI for
>>$3495.  The insides should have a 16MHz, 68020 processor, a 68881 math
>>                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>co-processor, an 80dpi screen, and an option for 1.6MB double 3.5" drives.
>>Compatibility is keeping Apple from a certain January debut.  Memory size was
>>not mentioned.

Well lets see, the Amiga already has MS-DOS like function keys, and a ctrl
key, and a few others that Apple has finally realized are useful. Good for
them. You didn't mention if the Aladdin "upgrade" will include the new
keyboard, if not, your back to selling your Mac and buying an Aladdin. 
Of course CSA's turbo rack can include a 20 Meg hard drive. It is more
expensive to buy a CSA turbo Amiga than this mythical Apple product but
there are a couple of differences, a) it is real and available now, b)
it has slots already and expansion boards to use them, if your monitor
is 9" wide and you adjust the width control to make the displayed screen
8" wide it has an 80dpi screen (actually all Amiga's do, wow and if you
use a 1" monitor is has a 640 dpi screen) c) Its color and the aladdin 
isn't, d) with 1.2 you can stick anyones 1.6M or 10Meg floppies on to it. 

>>
>>Paris is Apple's $4-7K SUN/AT/VAX killer.It will have a 68020/68881 processor
>>package, 1.6MB 3.5" floppy drives, 80 dpi screen, 8 slots on the motherboard,
>>and will use a VME bus.  The basic Paris (no hard disk) will sell for $3995
>>               ^^^^^^^
>>in March.  The Paris Workstation will sell for $5495 and will have standard
>>40 MB internal HD and a Radius-like full page screen (March or later).  At
>>$6995 you can have a color Paris.  Memory size was not mentioned.
>>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>Compatibility is the name of the game with Paris.  Apple wants as many third
>>party boards and as much software as possible.  This system CAN support
>>                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>multi-tasking, so it has to be as "open" and standard as possible.
>>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Point 1. VME Bus? You ever priced VME Bus peripherals? And is it single or
  double wide, or quad wide? With 8 slots this sucker is going to be bigger
  than an AT. Is it a deskside machine? 
Point 2. At $6995 what kind of color resolution are you talking about,
  certainly not the 1100 X 900 with 256 colors that Sun offers, maybe
  PGA levels (640 X 480 ?) Any bets on if that price includes the 
  monitor ?
Point 3. CAN but it DOESN'T. Any mention of an MMU? Sounds like Apple will
  be in the same spot with this mythical workstation as they were with the
  Apple IIGS, sure you can run all the old stuff but no software to take
  advantage of the nifty new features. Also sounds a lot like the problems
  the AT is having with new software, the 8088 stuff can't run on a '286
  in protected mode, so very little progress has occured in that direction.
  How many Mac programmers are going to write code that works on this wizzy
  machine if it won't also work on the umpteen thousand Macs out there?
  How many of these things do you expect people to buy?  You can buy a
  used Sun 2 with 71 MB of disk space and real Unix for less than $10K,
  is being able to use Mac Draw that much of an advantage? 
Point 4. Ed, this speculating on what Apple may or may not introduce is
  a pointless way to introduce heartburn. Everyone knows that as time
  goes on equipment gets more powerful and less expensive, Apple will
  surely continue that trend. However, you can always say "I will wait
  till next year and get all this and more for the same n dollars"
  or say "I will wait till next year and get the same for n dollars
  less." What you have to compare that to is the value of having a 
  machine *now*. If it is not worth it to you to have the machine then
  wait for what you have judged to be the best combination of power and
  price for your applications. 
> 
> Comments anyone?
> Disclaimer: The above is as reported on the MacUnderground.  I am only a
> subscriber and know as much as you do about the new Macs.
>
>   Ed Chaban

I reserve my final comments for such time as Apple actually has such a
product and is shippling it. In the mean time I will file the info about
the "Paris" and the "Aladdin" in the same place I filed the info about
the Apple File Server, my "Wait and See but don't hold your breath"
basket.

[Extra Disclaimer : I promise I won't do it again, really!]

-- 
--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.

ali@navajo.STANFORD.EDU (Ali Ozer) (12/07/86)

In article <385@plx.UUCP> ed@plx.UUCP (Ed Chaban) writes:
>The following is from comp.sys.mac:    Read it and weep!!
>>Next year there will be three Mac computers, the MacPlus, Aladdin, and Paris.
>>Aladdin is the code name for Apple's $2795 68020 Mac with double 800k drives.
>>It will look like the MacPlus and it will be Apple's last upgrade ($899) for
>>the Mac. It will have two slots on the motherboard and the keyboard will have
>>MS DOS-like function keys.  Apple will bundle the Aladdin with HD 20 SCSI for
>>$3495.  The insides should have a 16MHz, 68020 processor, a 68881 math
>>co-processor, an 80dpi screen, and an option for 1.6MB double 3.5" drives.
>>
>>Paris is Apple's $4-7K SUN/AT/VAX killer. ... At
>>$6995 you can have a color Paris.  Memory size was not mentioned.
>>Compatibility is the name of the game with Paris.  Apple wants as many third
>>party boards and as much software as possible.  This system CAN support
>>multi-tasking, so it has to be as "open" and standard as possible.

Let's see:

Aladdin, for only $2795, you get the same wonderful Mac look (the one
ComputerLand dealer's say multitask). 68020, 68881, double 800K drives,
Ms-DOS like function keys (wow!). The Amiga, on the other hand, with
double 880K drives, with a real sad 68000, some wimpy little graphics chips,
multitasking, several thousand colors, sells for under $1500. For another
$500 or $600, you get IBM compatibility.

If I weep, I weep at the Mac users stuck with the same basic Mac (only
now Mac "double" plus) despite a price tag of almost $3K. I also weep at them
because they have to pay close to $7K to get multitasking and colors.

I thought when my friends at Apple were saying "wait till you see what
Apple's got" they were talking about something good. The Paris sounds good,
but only in a way that the Sun or Xerox workstations do. 

Ali Ozer, ali@navajo.stanford.edu

perry@well.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) (12/07/86)

In article <385@plx.UUCP>, ed@plx.UUCP (Ed Chaban) writes:
> The following is from comp.sys.mac:    Read it and weep!!
> 

Ed, you're such an ass hole.

lachac@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (Gerard Lachac) (12/07/86)

In article <10199@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.uucp (Chuck McManis) writes:
> d) with 1.2 you can stick anyones 1.6M or 10Meg floppies on to it. 

Does anyone want to clarify this for me a bit??  Does this mean that
1.2 automatically will recognized any drive I stick on my Amiga, or does
this mean, as long as I have a driver I can use it.  And if the latter
is the case, wouldn't protected software make that ineffectual??


			lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu

dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) (12/07/86)

	Oh I'm *weeping* soooo hard.  I can't wait for Apple to come
out with those products at those prices!!  They'll fail immediately!

				-Matt

jeanne@reed.UUCP (Jeanne A. E. DeVoto) (12/09/86)

In article <10199@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.uucp (Chuck McManis) writes:
>                           . . . Of course the new Apple won't be able
>to run existing software because the Apple O/S can't handle the '020s 
>architecture . . .

That should interest the Mac users who have one of the several third-
party 68020 upgrades.  The Mac OS runs just dandy on a 68020, as does
all the software that follows Apple's compatibility guidelines.
-- 
jeanne a. e. devoto           |    "The mind is an infinite resource...but
...!tektronix!reed!jeanne     |     only if you don't squander it."
USsnail: 5353 SE 28th #38     |     
         Portland, OR 97202   |          James Hogan, "Voyage From Yesteryear"

tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith) (12/09/86)

In article <10199@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.uucp (Chuck McManis) writes:
>
> Of course the new Apple won't be able to run existing software
> because the Apple O/S can't handle the '020s architecture but I
> am sure every one will offer to trade money for upgrades.

The roms in the Mac+ can deal with a 68020, I believe.  Levco
sells a Mac 68020 + floating point + 4 meg ram + internal hard disk
upgrade right now, and the only major piece of software that has any
trouble with it is MacWrite.  The bozos who wrote MacWrite decided
to use trap instructions ( rather than subroutine calls ) for some
things, thus depending on knowing what a stack frame looked like!
-- 
emordnilapregnolanalpanama

Tim Smith       USENET: sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim   Compuserve: 72257,3706
                Delphi or GEnie: mnementh

sean@ukma.UUCP (12/10/86)

In article <385@plx.UUCP> ed@plx.UUCP (Ed Chaban) writes:
>The following is from comp.sys.mac:    Read it and weep!!
>>Next year there will be three Mac computers, the MacPlus, Aladdin, and Paris.
>>Aladdin is the code name for Apple's $2795 68020 Mac with double 800k drives.
>>It will look like the MacPlus and it will be Apple's last upgrade ($899) for
>>$3495.  The insides should have a 16MHz, 68020 processor, a 68881 math
>>co-processor, an 80dpi screen, and an option for 1.6MB double 3.5" drives.

If it doesn't have color, I spit in it's general direction.

Sean
-- 
===========================================================================
Sean Casey      UUCP:  cbosgd!ukma!sean           CSNET:  sean@ms.uky.csnet
		ARPA:  ukma!sean@anl-mcs.arpa    BITNET:  sean@UKMA.BITNET

daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (12/11/86)

> 
> In article <10199@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.uucp (Chuck McManis) writes:
>> d) with 1.2 you can stick anyones 1.6M or 10Meg floppies on to it. 
> 
> Does anyone want to clarify this for me a bit??  Does this mean that
> 1.2 automatically will recognized any drive I stick on my Amiga, or does
> this mean, as long as I have a driver I can use it.  And if the latter
> is the case, wouldn't protected software make that ineffectual??
> 
> 
> 			lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu

Any standard floppy can be driven with the trackdisk.device driver, you
don't need a special driver.  About all you have to do is connect it, and
edit your mountlist to reflect the number of tracks and sides, etc.  The
software protection issue is really a non-issue; a strange disk drive isn't
going to work any worse than a hard disk, and is actually capable of 
running some protected software if you really want to, though most of
the state of the art backup utilities remove protection on the Amiga.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dave Haynie	{caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh

	"Laws to supress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit.
	 This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of
	 history have based their job security."
						-Bene Gesserit Coda

These opinions are my own, though for a small fee they may be yours too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~