stanfiel@testeng1.misemi (Chris Stanfield) (08/16/90)
I have seen quite a lot of discussion over the last couple of days
about older (128K, 512K and 512 KE) Macs and I thought there might be
quite a few people interested in an upgrade that I have performed on
several of these machines. The upgrade board is called a NewLife 1
board and a brief description follows.
What it does: Allows the addition of up to 4Mb of memory, and also
provides a SCSI port. It can use 256K or 1M SIMMs. There are 8 SIMM
sockets on the board, so you can only add 2M if you use the smaller
SIMMs. The board recognizes the main memory on 512K machines, but not
on 128K machines. Note that the total memory cannot, of course,
exceed 4Mb. The manufacturer says that the modified machine is about
20% faster than a standard MacPlus, although I have not benchmarked
any of the machines that I have modified, so you will just have to
take their word for it.
Installation: This is a breeze. The board piggybacks on top of the
existing 68000. Both soldered and clip-on adaptors are supplied. I
would recommend the solder variety as tin plated contacts are not very
reliable, in my experience. Note that if your 68000 is in a ceramic
package, you will have to use the solder method. The board is supplied
with a very neat adaptor which replaces the battery compartment door
to bring the SCSI connector to the outside world.
Hard disk installation: I took the enhancement a little further by
installing an internal 20Mb hard drive, with an extra power supply for
the drive. There is plenty of room - after all the case is about the
same size as a Mac SE - but you will need a small fan of some sort. I
put an extra connector (IDC type) on the SCSI adaptor cable and
connected the hard drive to this via an adaptor cable. Make sure that
the terminating resistors are installed on the drive, and remember
never to add more than one additional set externally, installed at the
last device on the SCSI bus. If you have no external devices, you do
not need any extra terminators. (Just like the Mac Plus and SE)
Mac requirements: The Mac must have the 128 k (enhanced) ROM set, and
an 800k floppy drive. A 512 KE already has all of this, of course.
Manufacturer: Newbridge Microsystems
603 March Road
Kanata, Ontario
Canada, K2K 2M5
Telephone (613) 592 5080
800 267 7231
Fax (613) 592 1320
Contacts - Kim or Debbie (You can mention my name, if
you wish, or if they ask where you heard about the board.)
Price: The suggested list price is CDN$370. VISA and Mastercard are
accepted for direct orders, if you cannot obtain the board locally.
Other products: The same company also produces other enhancement
products, including a NewLife 2 board which has a video interface in
addition to all of the above features. The video port supports various
monitors, including NEC Multisync and Samsung Full Page Display. They
also produce several nice accelerator boards, including one with a
68030, a 68882, a SCSI port and a video port (the video port is
similar to the NewLife 2). This board will also take 4M of memory and
is system 7.0 compatible. The board will even fit in a 128k Mac (with
128k ROM set and 800k floppy) and costs CDN$2685. The kit also
includes a fan and is said to boost the performance to as much as six
times that of a Mac SE.
Overall impressions: I found the board easy to install and it has
given me no trouble to date (fingers crossed :-)). I would recommend
it to anyone who has one of the older machines, but needs more memory
and a hard drive. If you need more information about the hard drive
installation, please E-mail me at the address below. If there is a lot
of interest, I will post details.ddeutsch@bbn.com (Debra Deutsch) (08/17/90)
Dove Computer makes a variety of similar boards. My Mac 512E has just upgraded with a MacSnap 524S, which gave it a Meg of RAM and a SCSI port. The kit sounds similar to yours. The memory expansion board sits on top of the existing 68000, and the original battery door is replaced with a SCSI port. The manual is very clear, and installation goes just as it says. Best of all, the kit cost me only about $215 (from MacConnection, 800-MAC-LISA). I have only two caveats. First, even though Dove has gone to great lengths to make the upgrade easy to install by just about anyone who doesn't panic at the sight of a pc board and to sell their kits to such people (like me), they insist that the warrantee is void if installation is performed by someone other than a dealer or an Apple certified technician. Second, you will need a digital voltmeter to check and calibrate the power supply. No big deal, but this fact is omitted from the section at the beginning of the manual where they tell you what you'll need, and I don't happen to have such things sitting around my house :-). Debbie Deutsch