Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.st:34942 comp.sys.atari.st.tech:1389 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!agate!shelby!msi.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve From: steve@thelake.mn.org (Steve Yelvington) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.atari.st.tech Subject: Re: No More Mac ROMs? Message-ID: Date: 12 Feb 91 05:06:46 GMT Followup-To: comp.sys.atari.st Lines: 85 [cummins@unx2.ucc.okstate.ed writes ... ] >>Well, I have heard that a company has successfully cloned the Mac ROMs, >>opening the doors to a flood of Mac clones. I don't know the name or >>anything though, but this might be a ray of sunlight to the Mac emulation >>world. >> > > Details!!!!!! > > please? anyone!!!! The following is an excerpt from the Minnesota Atari ST user group newsletter, which goes in the mail tomorrow (assuming I get the laser printing done). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE LAST WORD By Steve Yelvington Well, somebody's finally done what should have been done a long time ago: written a genuine alternative Macintosh-compatible operating system. Not just a Mac emulator. A complete Mac replacement. It's described in the Jan. 28 issue of InfoWorld, a weekly personal computer trade magazine. A company called Nutek Computers Inc. has cooked up replacements for Mac ROMs and the disk-based portion of the Mac software (system and multitasking Multifinder). It also has three custom chips that can form the heart of a Mac-compatible, and it's looking for companies to produce the hardware. This is different from Dave Small's Spectre, Magic Sac, AMAX and other Mac emulators for the Atari ST and the Amiga. They require you to track down a genuine Mac ROM chip set and a copy of Apple's system software. Apple has suddenly clamped down on Mac ROM chips, and Apple dealers can get them only by turning in the old chips they're replacing -- or by paying a whopping surcharge. Apple seems determined to keep Spectre et al from catching up with current top-of-the-line Macs. Nutek's technology sidesteps the whole problem by providing its own alternative software, developed in a ``clean room'' environment based on Apple's specifications without seeing a line of Apple's code. And although it runs Mac software, it avoids ``look and feel'' copyright infringement by not looking like a Mac. How can that be? Well, Nutek has licensed the Motif user interface from the Open Software Foundation. OSF is pushing Motif as a friendly look for new Unix systems. IBM has adopted Motif for OS/2. And Geoworks has adopted Motif for GEOS on smaller PC clones. It's an attractive and well thought-out windowing system. When a Mac application opens a window, it gets a Motif window. When it puts up a menu bar, it gets a Motif menu bar, attached to a window instead of glued to the top of the screen. This is actually easier to understand than Mac Multifinder's method of changing the content of the menu bar as you switch among concurrent applications. I haven't seen any of Nutek's software running, but the pictures sure look good. Dave Small has said he's not interested in making a Spectre that can use 256K Mac II ROMs, the current state of the art. One reason may be that they're darned near impossible to get. (There is a report that Apple is considering licensing Mac ROMs to other companies for $500 to $1,000 a pop). If Nutek makes its alternative system technology available at a modest price, the whole picture may change. ----------------------------------------------------------------- (The rest of the column goes on to discuss TT and Apple pricing, and is therefore omitted here.) ---- Steve Yelvington / P. O. Box 38 / Marine on St. Croix, MN 55047 USA INTERNET: steve@thelake.mn.org UUCP: plains!umn-cs!thelake!steve