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From: toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: What I would like to see
Message-ID: <13273@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 15 Jan 90 02:37:13 GMT
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Reply-To: toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (Todd P. Whitesel)
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Organization: California Institute of Technology
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Here's some stuff I would like to see from Apple, some reasonable, some not so
reasonable. Most of all I'd like to see Apple actively defending its home and
educational market share instead of stalling until the Low Cost Color Mac is
_finally_ ready. I bet they could get a redesigned low cost gs out the door
within the year if they only had the go-ahead from upstairs.

0 (should already have this). Update turnaround so that 5.0.3 would have
	already fixed the SCSI Manager bug. (How do I use Installer to de-
	update back to the 4.0 SCSI Manager??)

1. HyperCard gs. Please tell me the rumors are true.

2. Enhanced Quickdraw to support the Video Overlay Card's 640x400 Interlaced
	SHR mode. I would buy the VOC for that alone. (Damn the flicker, full
	aspect ratio ahead!)

3. Better, a programmable video board along the lines of the VOC that can drive
	almost any monitor (NTSC to Mac II) and would support MORE COLORS!
	GenLock with a frame grabber would also be nice. (I know, third party.)

4. A SCSI card that supports DMA like the Fast-Kache from OKS. (For SCSI you
	don't need a sophisticated hardware cache, just a FAST interface. Let
	the driver or Diversi-Cache handle the rest.

5. Best of all, a NEW MOTHERBOARD that is really WORTH BUYING (as opposed to
	upgrading, which is "unsupported" even though you could probably get
	the new ROMs and patch them a bit and then put them on a gs-ram Ultra.)
	I wonder how much trouble it would be to get a bunch of third parties
	together and license the technology necessary to produce a new gs that
	has at least some of the following:

	a. Transwarp built in. Better, make it so the CPU, clock, and cache are
		user-expandable when faster parts become available. (I believe
		Transwarp already has this property.) I heard Bill Mensch had
		some 12 Mhz samples with him at AppleFest.

	b. Redesigned chipset:
		i) Scrap the Mega //. Let's see a real programmable video chip.
		ii) Improved access to the DOC. (Use RDY, for god's sake!)
		iii) DMA Co-processor to SCC (for Appletalk), DOC, video, etc.
		iv) Get a chunky-pixel blitter. I'm sick of Amiga smugpusses.
		v) Use the 65816 VP pin to get real vectored interrupts/traps.

	c. SIMMs on the motherboard. 256k, 1M, 4M. Ram from 00-BF. (12 megs!)

	d. A fast bus of some kind. Some people already have ideas about this.
		(Bank $C0?)

	e. SCSI and SWIM with dedicated controller.

	f. Stereo decoder built in. Use CA3 from the DOC. Give the DOC more
		ram, or at least make refilling the sound buffers trivial
		(DMA?) for long sound files (i.e. not instruments).

	g. A QUIET FAN. I have a Delta DC Brushless, Model DFA0812L, 12v at
		100ma, by Delta Electronic Ind. Co., Ltd. which I adapted to my
		//+'s 4 pin video connector. This fan is quieter than an Apple
		3.5 and it moves air better than the Apple //gs System Fan,
		which I unfortunately bought for my gs.

Comments, flames, kudos, all invited. Some of this probably sounds a bit far
fetched but that's because I'm skipping details; I think most of this is pretty
feasible. (I've got some ideas on how to actually do some of it and if it could
get me a summer position at Apple I'd be delighted to discuss by E-mail.)

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu