mjohnson@Apple.COM (Mark B. Johnson) (03/16/90)
Original-posting-by: mjohnson@Apple.COM (Mark B. Johnson)
Original-subject: Apple II High-Speed SCSI Card Released
Reposted-by: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti)
APPLE ANNOUNCES NEW APPLE II HIGH-SPEED SCSI CARD
CUPERTINO, California--March 15, 1990--Apple Computer, Inc. today
announced a new high-speed card that moves information up to 10
times faster between Apple II personal computers and peripheral
devices, such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives, at no extra cost.
The new Apple II High-Speed SCSI Card provides the fastest data
throughput available for Apple IIe and Apple IIGS users, and is
compatible with all small computer system interface (SCSI)
peripherals.
"We continue to respond to the needs of our education, consumer
and small business customers to enhance the performance of the
Apple II line," said Randy Battat, vice president, worldwide product
marketing. "This high-speed card, together with recent product
announcements including new Apple II system software and video
overlay card, make the investment in Apple II personal computers
even more valuable."
Customers who use the new Apple II High-Speed SCSI Card with
a SCSI peripheral extend their computer's performance. For example,
customers using large applications stored on a hard disk drive,
such as AppleWorks GS, or any large files, will see a significant
speed improvement when launching programs, as well as opening and
saving files. The larger the application or the larger the file
results in the greatest speed improvement.
Features and Benefits
The new Apple II High-Speed SCSI Card provides faster data
transfer primarily because of a new feature called direct memory
access (DMA) data transfer. Data is transferred directly between
the computer's memory and the SCSI peripheral, with minimal
interaction from the computer's microprocessor. The result is
improved data transfer performance. With the new high-speed card,
data transfers at a rate of up to 1MB per second on the Apple IIGS
computer, and at a rate of up to .5MB per second on the Apple IIe
computer. In addition to DMA, the SCSI manager and firmware have
been improved and also contribute to the increased performance.
Compatible with all SCSI peripherals, the Apple II High-Speed
SCSI Card requires only that device-specific applications and
drivers be installed on the system. The card ships with drivers
and applications for hard disk and CD-ROM drives, allowing users
to take advantage of these devices immediately. Device drivers
for the tape backup drive and scanner will be made available to
developers, and users will be able to take advantage of these
devices as applications are developed. In addition, the new card
enables users to connect as many as seven SCSI peripherals to their
computer.
Another feature of the card is an on-board terminator, which
simplifies setup when connecting SCSI peripherals to the computer.
Previously, the Apple II SCSI Card required users to understand
rules regarding placement and quantity of terminators between SCSI
devices. With the new card, users simply place one terminator at
the end of the chain of SCSI devices.
The Apple II High-Speed SCSI Card also includes improved
hard disk utilities. These utilities make it easy to handle hard
disk management tasks such as data backup, disk partitioning and
disk verification. The partition and verify utilities take
advantage of the improved firmware commands for hard disk drives.
The backup utility is now able to handle the resource forks that
are part of the IIGS files. Because these are ProDOS utilities,
they can be used by both Apple IIe and Apple IIGS users.
System Requirements
The Apple II High-Speed SCSI Card works on an Apple IIGS
computer or an Apple IIe computer with a 65C02 microprocessor.
The Apple IIGS requires a 3.5-inch disk drive, while the Apple IIe
requires either a 5.25- or a 3.5-inch disk drive. Both require a
device with a SCSI port, appropriate SCSI cabling and one SCSI
terminator.
Price and Availability
The suggested retail price of the Apple II High-Speed SCSI
Card is $129, the same price as the previous SCSI card, which it
replaces. The card will be available in the U. S. on March 15 at
authorized Apple resellers.
-30-
Apple, the Apple logo, Apple IIGS and ProDOS are registered
trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
--
Mark B. Johnson AppleLink: mjohnson
Developer Technical Support domain: mjohnson@Apple.com
Apple Computer, Inc. UUCP: {amdahl,decwrl,sun,unisoft}!apple!mjohnson
"You gave your life to become the person you are right now. Was it worth it?"
- Richard Bach, _One_