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From: jimb@silvlis.com (Jim Budler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: New Mac Frustrations
Message-ID: <1990Nov14.225709.13353@silvlis.com>
Date: 14 Nov 90 22:57:09 GMT
References: <1990Nov9.172342.7363@umiami.ir.miami.edu>
Sender: usenet@silvlis.com (USENET news maint)
Reply-To: jimb@silvlis.com (Jim Budler)
Organization: Silvar-Lisco,Inc. Sunnyvale Ca.
Lines: 73

In article <1990Nov9.172342.7363@umiami.ir.miami.edu> gross@umiami.ir.miami.edu (Mondo) writes:
>Ya know, the more I hear about what Apple left out of the low-cost Macs,
>the more I get annoyed with it.  For example...
>
>   1) The switch to a 16-bit data path on the 68020.  Albeit it's not
>      a real big slowdown, it doesn't seem that the price would be so
>      outrageously affected by using the same chip that is in a Mac II.

Yes, it was nice of Apple to expand from an 8 bit bus to a 16 bit bus
wasn't it?

>
>   2) The power problems.  You can't even use the 8*24 GC card in an IIsi
>      because it draws too much power from the supply.  And Apple is pushing
>      both the LC and IIsi as multimedia-capable machines.  Yeah, they have
>      sound input now, but that lack of power reduces the ability of those
>      machines to handle some cards.  

Why the 'even'? The 8*24 GC card has long been acknowledged to exceed
power specs for one slot. The cards the IIsi can't use are all power
hungry. And most are for functions that are really beyond the intended
market of the IIsi. Apple should have designed the machine for the 1% to
5% of the people who need AND buy multiple or high power cards?

I think it is a beautiful machine, and I wouldn't really want a larger
machine wasting space on my desk for slots I wouldn't use. The sales
and market have shown that more buyers agree with me than agree with
you.

>
>But the biggest annoyance of all is the lack of slots.  Once again, Apple
>is beaten in cost because cheap-o PC clones and Amigas come with at least
>3 slots.  It seems the only way they know how to reduce costs is
>to reduce features and functionality.  C'mon guys, one slot?  And 5 bus
>architectures (SE Direct, '020 Direct, '030 Direct, Portable, and NuBus)!
>

Maybe, but 99% of us won't even use the one slot we've got.

What 5 bus architecture? A PDS is *not* a bus. It's a direct
connection to the CPU chip. As such different PDS layouts have more
to do with pinout of the 68000, 68020, and 68030 than anything Apple did.
Complain to Motorola.

>Yes, the new stuff is cheap...but then again...you get what you pay for.

And more than happy with it, thank you. It's very well built, very fast,
and provides all the expansion I can see need for in the forseable
future. The things I can see *needing* more capability than is provided
by the IIsi probably aren't met by *any* $4000 machine on the market.
And yes, I include the new Next and the new Sparc2 in that statement,
although they are probably the closest machines. Please note when I
say needing, I mean exactly that, the difference between doing or
not doing a job.

>
>And it's a got a few new bells and whistles, but in the end, it ain't anything
>to go bonkers over.
>
>I, for one, am real disappointed.
>

Well then, go buy one of those wonderful cheap PC clones, since it is
slots and power supplies that turn you on.

>Jason Gross     Comp Sci Ugrad     University of Miami     Class of '91 (?)

jim
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