avery@well.UUCP (Avery Ray Colter) (10/05/89)
I would like to know if the Portable is the first in a planned line.
`Cause I might be getting a Mac in the next year after I graduate. It will
be useful either for work or for grad school.
However, I'm torn between the color and A/UX abilities of the IIcx and
the versatility of the Portable.
So, my word to Chuq von Rospach is this:
Show me a Portable Mac with a color LCD screen, or at least ability to
drive and external color monitor, AND full A/UX capability (including 80/4)
and you'll have this elf sold.
--
Avery Ray Colter (415) 451-7786 | Now, class, repeat after me:
{apple|ucbvax|pacbell}!well!avery | ICH LIEBE DIE BELEIBTEN LEIBEN,
avery@well.sf.ca.us | UND HUPFENDE HUEFTE HABE ICH GERN!chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (10/05/89)
>I would like to know if the Portable is the first in a planned line. I would tend to say yes, since when they announced it, they announced it as the first machine in the new portable family... >So, my word to Chuq von Rospach is this: Why pick on me? (heh-heh) >Show me a Portable Mac with a color LCD screen, or at least ability to >drive and external color monitor, AND full A/UX capability (including 80/4) >and you'll have this elf sold. If you ask me (and I honestly don't know what the future plans of the portable line are -- and if I did I wouldn't be making this posting) it'll be a while before you see A/UX on a portable. Why? One reason: A/UX requires at least a 68020 and a PMMU or a 68030. The portable requires CMOS for power consumption. Until Motorola ships CMOS 68030's, it can't happen. If the parts don't exist, you can't build a machine around them. Another reason: a larger screen would be nice, but the active matrix display is already stretching the limits of the technology (which is one reason why the Portable didn't exist a year ago. That active matrix display has a little transistor on every pixel -- it is, essentially, a giant IC chip. The fabrication technology is rather awesome, actually). To increase the size in B&W is hard enough. To do it in color -- I'm not sure how you would do it. I'm sure they'll figure it out as fast as they can, but the technology isn't ther.e Color in general: it'd be nice to have color in the Portable ROMs, if only to support color on an external monitor (although that would require adding hardware support for color onto the logic board and more memory, which would drive up the price for everyone although relatively few people would need it; always tradeoffs), but color is a lot more processor dependent and to keep up performance you really want to use an 020 or 030. So Color Quickdraw isn't likely to show up until the CMOS parts show up, etc..... The Portable is really stretching technology in ways that aren't obvious until you start delving into the guts. It's the best Macintosh Portable we can build given current technology limits. As those limits expand, you can expect newer and more powerful machines, but it isn't just a matter of plopping in an 020 and changing the crystal, like so much of the computer press likes to think.... -- Chuq Von Rospach <+> Editor,OtherRealms <+> Member SFWA/ASFA chuq@apple.com <+> CI$: 73317,635 <+> [This is myself speaking] Future home of the San Jose Photons! I was a Kings fan before it was politically correct. NHL to San Jose!