rs4u#@ANDREW.CMU.EDU.UUCP (04/08/87)
I was reading IM volume 4, and I came across the following paragraph:
"The Macintosh Plus contains two 512K-bit (64Kx8) ROM chips,
providing 128K bytes of ROM. This is the largest size of ROM that can be
installed in a Macintosh 128K, 512K, or 512K enhanced. The Macintosh Plus
ROM sockets, however, can accept ROM chips of up 1M-bit (128K x 8)
in size. A configuration of two 1M-bit ROM chips would provide
256K bytes of ROM."
Does this mean that it's possible to upgrade a Mac Plus with a pair
of ROMS from the Mac SE? Would a Plus so upgraded behave properly
(as far as compatibility with Plus and SE)?
Are such upgrades available?
Inquiring minds wnat to know...
--Richjww@sdcsvax.UUCP (04/08/87)
(What kind of sick message id is this^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^?)
Apple will be introducing RAM-based patches to Script Manager and TextEdit
traps for anyone with a Plus or 512Ke with System 4.1. This will give you
most of the SE's software capabilities, except ADB (not needed).
There's tons of stuff in the Mac II ROM that's not in the SE ROM and,
absent a third-party color video display board, doesn't make sense for
it anyway.
--
Joel West
{ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww (ihnp4!gould9!joel once I fix news)
jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu if you mustdgold@apple.UUCP (04/09/87)
In article <MS.V3.18.rs4u.80022404.brownsville.ibm032.385.4@andrew.cmu.edu> rs4u#@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Richard Siegel) writes: >... > Does this mean that it's possible to upgrade a Mac Plus with a pair >of ROMS from the Mac SE? Would a Plus so upgraded behave properly >(as far as compatibility with Plus and SE)? Although the Mac Plus can accept 256K ROMs, the SE ROMs would not work in a Mac Plus. This is because of the differences in hardware (the Plus uses the old keyboard bus, but the SE uses ADB, for example) between the two machines. There is currently no ROM image in existence which corresponds to the SE ROMs but adapted for the Mac Plus hardware. In any case, this isn't really necessary. There is no non-hardware-related feature of the SE ROMs which is not being made available to Plus users via patches (I hope my English teacher never sees that sentence). If you run system 4.1 or later on your plus (or 512E) you'll get the new TextEdit, menu manager, and font manager that the SE and II have. All other changes in the SE ROM are tightly tied to the SE hardware. -- David Goldsmith Apple Computer, Inc. MacApp Group AppleLink: GOLDSMITH1 UUCP: {nsc,dual,sun,voder,ucbvax!mtxinu}!apple!dgold CSNET: dgold@apple.CSNET, dgold%apple@CSNET-RELAY BIX: dgoldsmith
chuq@plaid.UUCP (04/09/87)
>In any case, this isn't really necessary. There is no non-hardware-related >feature of the SE ROMs which is not being made available to Plus users >via patches. If you run system 4.1 or later on your plus (or 512E) >you'll get the new TextEdit, menu manager, and font manager that the >SE and II have. This brings up an interesting question. If this is all going to be patched this implies they'll be loaded into RAM in the system heap. How much memory are these patches going to take, and is that loss of memory going to cripple 512K machines? I remember the good old days when I was using the old ROM's and RAM based HFS, and a number of programs that were well behaved in 512K didn't work terribly well in (512K - RAM HFS). A number of applications are already pushing machines towars a megabyte or more (I would not do serious work in LSC or Word 3.0 in 512K, and RSG3 could stand it too) and I expect this to get worse over time. Are we pushing the smaller machines into obsolescense that much faster? Is there any way we can convince Apple to put the non-hardware related functionality into a new ROM for owners of the 512K and Plus so we don't have to eat our Ram for the rest of eternity? This almost looks to me like a hidden inducement to obsolete the old machines... Now, where did I put that 2 megabyte upgrade, I think I'm going to need it... chuq Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM [I don't read flames] There is no statute of limitations on stupidity
huxham@apple.UUCP (04/09/87)
In article <MS.V3.18.rs4u.80022404.brownsville.ibm032.385.4@andrew.cmu.edu> rs4u#@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Richard Siegel) writes: > Does this mean that it's possible to upgrade a Mac Plus with a pair >of ROMS from the Mac SE? Would a Plus so upgraded behave properly >(as far as compatibility with Plus and SE)? > > Are such upgrades available? Unfortunately, "No", to all of the above. Fred