Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!apple!bbn.com!nic!chaos.cs.brandeis.edu!dan
From: dan@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Dan Schwarz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: 32-bit clean ROMs
Message-ID: <1990Sep27.184812.22612@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
Date: 27 Sep 90 18:48:12 GMT
References: <1990Sep27.104044.9207@lth.se>
Distribution: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Organization: Brandeis University Computer Science Dept
Lines: 37

In article <1990Sep27.104044.9207@lth.se> sund@tde.lth.se (Lars Sundstr|m) writes:
>Will my SE/30 ever have the possibility to upgrade the ROMs in order
>to get 32-bit clean?
>
>/Lars Sundstrom

Well, the possibility does exist. This has been bounced around at Apple for
some time, as I understand it... there have been compatibility test products
for developers which consist of a special 32-bit clean Mac OS and 32-bit clean
ROMs... this is to enable people with Mac //x and //cx machines to make their
systems 32-bit clean, and thus test their programs for compatibility. They
do NOT have 32-bit clean ROMs for the Mac // (which has ROM chips, not SIMMs)
or the Mac SE/30 (which could accept the 32-bit clean SIMMs, but currently
the SIMMs are big PROMs, not surface mount chips, and an SE/30 so upgraded
could not possibly fit back into its case. 

So Apple does have the technology to update everyone's Mac // series machines
to be 32-bit clean, should they desire to do so. The major problem? If you
put in new ROMs, they've got to do something with the old ones. They could
have a problem like they did with the Mac Plus - dealers would do upgrades
then sell the old ROMs to Atari and Amiga owners, who were very happy to
put them in their Magic Sac, Spectre GCR, etc... Macintosh emulators.

The last thing Apple wants is a black market for Mac II series ROMs. 
So they've got to work out some kind of "security" to insure the old ROMs
are kept in their hands. 

-Dan




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