zl04+@andrew.cmu.edu (Zachary Shanes Levow) (04/24/89)
A couple of questions:
1) does or to what extent does spectre
handle AppleTalk?
2) does it handle Mac color?
3) what does GCR stand for?
thanks-
Zachdlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (04/26/89)
in article <UYIea1y00Uo1I-MkQa@andrew.cmu.edu>, zl04+@andrew.cmu.edu (Zachary Shanes Levow) says: > A couple of questions: > 1) does or to what extent does spectre > handle AppleTalk? The Spectre 128(tm) and/or Spectre GCR(tm) does not support AppleTalk(tm). AppleTalk requires hardware that the ST does not have. Several companies are considering developing AppleTalk interfaces for the ST. If/when an AppleTalk interface is available for the ST the Spectre will be upgraded to support it. (Of course some of the companies have been talking about building AppleTalk interfaces for over 2 years so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it.) > 2) does it handle Mac color? The Spectre 128 uses the 128K Mac(tm) OS ROMs. The 128K ROMs do not support color displays. The only Macs with color support are the Mac II and the Mac IIx which have 256K ROMs with color quickdraw. > 3) what does GCR stand for? Group Code Recording, the data encoding method used by the Mac for floppy disks. The Spectre GCR adds the hardware and software the ST needs to use GCR disks. The ST normally uses MFM disks (Modified Frequency Modulation). Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druwy.ATT.COM
elixir@m-net.UUCP (Rodney Fulk) (04/28/89)
In article <UYIea1y00Uo1I-MkQa@andrew.cmu.edu> zl04+@andrew.cmu.edu (Zachary S hanes Levow) writes: >A couple of questions: > 1) does or to what extent does spectre > handle AppleTalk? > > 2) does it handle Mac color? > > 3) what does GCR stand for? > >thanks- >Zach No it doesnt do any thing with apple talk.. No it is mono only... (But it runs much faster all around than a mac se and with its 640x400 screen it is much bigger thjan a mac too..) GCR apparently is the way the mac controler accesses its disks.. As you can probly guess this one can read mac disks directly.. (EVERYTHING about this is faster than a mac se though except for the sound..)
jpexg@hermes.ai.mit.edu (John Purbrick) (04/29/89)
When Spectre GCR comes out I'm going to be seriously tempted. But does it require a hard disk to run? It seems that everyone talks about Spectre in terms of hard disk usage--and prices are still too high for me to be greatly tempted by one.
Xorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) (05/01/89)
With GCR reading Mac disks directly at 1:1 or faster Mac speed, a hard drive will not be a necessity. The reason a hard drive is often mentioned is because Spectre reads the HD so fast that it results in speeds that are truely amazing, and causes Spectre to run at faster speeds than a stock Mac Plus or SE! But by all means- get a HD as soon as possible - once you have one you will never know how you lived without it and prices for new 20 meggers is starting to flirt with the below $500 range and good used ones can be had for far less. Peter Szymonik Xorg@cup.portal.com
jmg@cernvax.UUCP (jmg) (05/02/89)
In article <3995@druwy.ATT.COM> dlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) writes: > The Spectre 128(tm) and/or Spectre GCR(tm) does not support >AppleTalk(tm). AppleTalk requires hardware that the ST does not have. >Several companies are considering developing AppleTalk interfaces for >the ST. If/when an AppleTalk interface is available for the ST the >Spectre will be upgraded to support it. (Of course some of the >companies have been talking about building AppleTalk interfaces for over >2 years so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it.) > On the other hand, there seems to be a very reasonable Ethernet interface available in Germany. Now, how about killing lots of birds with one piece of software. Write the drivers such that we could run Apple's EtherTalk (or KIP if you prefer). Or maybe you would rather have one of the Mac TCP/IP products. Or any of the related products, such as Oracle, based (currently, I believe) on the Kinetics TCPort drivers? Utopia is only a program away! -- _ _ o | __ | jmg@cernvax.uucp | | | | _ / \ _ __ _ __ _| jmg@cernvax.bitnet | | | | |_) /_) | __/_) | (___\ | (_/ | J. M. Gerard, Div. DD, CERN, | | |_|_| \_/\___ \__/ \___| (_|_| \_|_ 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) (05/05/89)
>With GCR reading Mac disks directly at 1:1 or faster Mac speed, >a hard drive will not be a necessity. The reason a hard drive is often >mentioned is because Spectre reads the HD so fast that it results >in speeds that are truely amazing, and causes Spectre to run at >faster speeds than a stock Mac Plus or SE! NO! The Mac is unusable as a single drive system unless you load the system/finder files into RAM disk. With fonts and desk accessories (that become part of the system file) 1 MByte of system/finder is not uncommon. Count on at least 350K for a bare bones config. With a Mega 2/4 set up a single drive config with system/finder in RAM is OK but you can run into trouble on a 1040ST (forget a 520ST). If you do not put system/finder in RAM, count on ENDLESS disk swaps. And I MEAN ***ENDLESS* disk swaps!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friesen@PCO-MULTICS.HBI.HONEYWELL.COM (05/11/89)
Peter Szymonik points out that with the new disk speeds of the Spectre GCR, a hard disk is no longer a necessity. Well, there is another consideration... The Mac was designed with one (actually more, but I think this is the largest) major flaw. IT WAS NOT MADE TO WORK WITHOUT A HARD DISK!!! Sure, it will *work*; this is the reason it doesn't work that well: It takes one disk drive to hold your system (this is also very limited by the memory restricions of a floppy--the systems are soo BIG). It takes another disk drive to hold your application, such as MacWrite. If you want to save your data on a seperate file disk, you will run into the fun problem of constant disk swapping (the OS constantly changes which disk it accesses) because the Mac only handles two disk drives, in other workds, you have no room for your file disk. The only solution is to shrink your system even more by removing fonts and desk accessories, and put MacWrite on your system disk, and then put your data disk in the external drive. Or you can solve all you problems by buying a hard disk. Isn't it nice having your whole OS in ROM like on the ST.... Aric Friesen Addresses: Genie: A.FRIESEN ARPA: Friesen%PCO@BCO-MULTICS.ARPA "Hypnotism; the programming language for people."
Xorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) (05/12/89)
I ran into a small hospital office where they were using a Mac Plus with Word and File. Imagine my horror (and humor) when I discovered that this office of six people were using a Mac Plus with NO external drive or hard drive!! The salesperson just never bothered to tell them how much easier life would be with a hard drive or even just the external drive. They thought the ** 42 ** disk swaps needed to boot the latest System and then the Word program disk was normal! $175 dollars later they now enjoy an external drive and with a little more arm twisting I'll still be able to wedge a hard drive in there! :-] Peter Szymonik Xorg@cup.portal.com