noah@Apple.COM (Noah Price) (06/11/90)
Filename: IIci-Intro
Six months have passed since the introduction of the Mac IIci and in
that time it has achieved success worldwide. The product has been given
superlative reviews by a number of the leading trade publications and
was the only CPU product chosen to receive the prestigious Byte
Magazine Award of Excellence. Together, the outstanding performance
provided by the 25 MHz '030 and optional cache, the flexibility and
added expandability afforded by the built-in video and the
extensibility of the IIci architecture have proven to be a compelling
combination for customers across all of Apple's key markets. However,
despite being acknowledged as an outstanding design, concerns have been
expressed regarding the compatibility of the IIci with third party
hardware and software products.
000000000000000000000000 THE WHEELS OF PROGRESS 000000000000000000000000
The Macintosh IIci represents one of the most significant steps forward
in the hardware architecture of the Macintosh since the introduction of
the Macintosh II. Whenever you introduce a product with as many
significant architectural enhancements as the IIci, incompatibilities
are inevitable. The IIci delivered a number of firsts for the Macintosh
architecture, including:
* higher clockspeed
* built-in video
* 32 bit QuickDraw in ROM
* non-contiguous memory addressing
These are all significant internal modifications, intended to
strengthen the Macintosh architecture and provide even greater
flexibility for future hardware and software developments.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that the majority of the
modifications third party developers are having to make to support
improvements incorporated into the IIci are improvements which will
also be necessary to support future CPU's and future versions of the
Macintosh operating system.
The changes necessary to support non-contiguous memory and the
utilization of the PMMU are changes that are going to be required to
run correctly with V.M. in System 7.0. 32-bit QuickDraw will be
included in all future ROM's which include color. Built-in video is
going to be included in a number of future CPU's and the fact that we
will design systems that run at greater than 16 MHz is obvious.
000000000000000000000000 PERCEPTION VS. REALITY! 00000000000000000000000
The reality is that the majority of third party software and hardware
work perfectly fine with the IIci. Apple's internal testing prior to
the IIci introduction yielded results comparable to other recently
introduced CPU's (i.e. =>90% compatibility). And, among the small
number of third party compatibility problems related to the IIci most
have been revealed and corrected. In addition, with the exception of
three products all of Apple's hardware, software and networking and
communication products were compatible with the IIci at introduction.
000000000000000000000000000 CONCLUSION 00000000000000000000000000000
There are three key points that should be emphasized in any discussions
surrounding IIci compatibility.
1) The vast majority of third party hardware and software is
compatible with the IIci.
2) The IIci introduced a number of significant improvements to
the Macintosh architecture and many of the compatibility
problems are related to these improvements.
3) The majority of the modifications that third party developers
are having to make to support the IIci are changes that will be
necessary to support future CPU's and future versions of the Mac
operating system.
0000000000 FOLLOWUP - IIci compatibility reports and lists 000000000000
In an effort to promote a better understanding of the issues
surrounding IIci compatibility, there are three additional documents in
the IIci Compatibility Update folder.
1. IIci Compatibility Report-SUMMARY
Filename: IIci-Compat-Summary
This is an abridged version of the full IIci compatibility report
which provides a less technical summary for those who may not have
the time or inclination to read the more detailed full report.
2. IIci Compatibility Report
Filename: IIci-Compat-Report
This is a detailed file explaining why certain incompatibilities
have occurred and what is being done about them.
3. IIci Third Party Compatibility Lists
Filename: IIci-by-Maker.SW (Software, sorted by maker)
Filename: IIci-by-Maker.HW (Hardware, sorted by maker)
Filename: IIci-by-Prod.SW (Software, sorted by product)
Filename: IIci-by-Prod.HW (Hardware, sorted by product)
These lists were gathered through a survey of the leading Macintosh
third party developers and includes over 350 of the leading
hardware and software products, all of which are compatible with
the IIci.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding any of the materials
posted please contact me.*
Thx
Fred Benz
Macintosh IIci Product Manager
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* See the accompanying file "IIci-Compat-READ-ME" for instructions to
send questions or comments regarding the IIci Compatibility Report or
lists.
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