wieser@cs-sun-fsa.cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Bernhard Wieser) (12/13/90)
Greetings Net People; I work in a lab which is great need of a new machine. First, I'll tell you what we do, and then I'll drop some questions. The lab is for vision/cognition research. It has a bunch o' macs, including II, IIx, pluses and cx. The work I do requires colour graphics (speed is important), floating point calculations, and specific timing. We have a national instruments A-D board which migrates from machine to machine. We hook buttons for RT timing and an eye movement monitor for sampling to it. So, we need a new machine. I suggested the IIsi because of 20MHz clock and built in video. I gather this is 8 bit video? I hear that it uses main memory for video. Can you put in video ram? Also, the national instruments board is NuBus. I understand I need an adapter which joyously comes with an FPU. Can I get any more slots than just 1 via an expansion box? If so, how much, from whom.... Suggestions appreciated. THanks. e-mail BSWieser@uncamult.BITNET -- ( Bernie Wieser, wieser@cpsc.ucalgary.ca, BSWieser@uncamult.BITNET ) ( 4rth Year Dbl.Mgr Cpsc Clhc University of Calgary | ) ( S/H Developer Dept. of Psychology, " " " \|/ ) ( Octavian Micro Development Group --- o --- )
mek4_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Mark Kern) (12/15/90)
Hi,
I work at the Eye Tracking lab at the University of Rochester, and
we use a Mac II with the National Board hooked up to the tracker.
if you need to be able to refresh the screen fast, you might not
want an SI. The built-in video card uses main memory, and is only half
as fast as some dedicated nu-bus color cards. And yes, the built in card
is 8-bit color. Its hard enough to get a fast refresh on the Mac II here
with a nubus video card...the SI might be a real headache.
Another consideration is that the SI has a conservative power
supply...so conservative that it cannot run many external video cards.
I don't know how much the National consumes, but this might be too much
for the SI's power supply.
I've always believed that a research machine must have more than
3 slots. We are getting another board for another tracker..so thats 2
slots already...and if you want to upgrade video, there goes another one.
I think your best bet is to go with a Mac cx or get another used
IIx or something along those lines.
Mark E. Kern
P.S. by "refresh", I don't mean the actual refresh rate of the monitor
or video card...I mean the rate that you need to draw, etc.
--
=========================================================================
Mark Edward Kern, mek4_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu A.Online: Markus
Quagmire Studios U.S.A. "We not only hear you, we feel you !"
=========================================================================