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From: thomas@duteca (Thomas Okken)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Apple should offer 32-bit clean ROM upgrades!
Message-ID: <1291@duteca.UUCP>
Date: 24 Apr 91 01:17:41 GMT
Reply-To: thomas@duteca.et.tudelft.nl (Thomas Okken)
Organization: Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Lines: 37

With the System 7.0 coming any time now, it will become increasingly clear
that owners of the older Mac II models (II, IIx, IIcx and SE/30) are about
to be left in the cold where the full power of this System is concerned.
What is the problem? These older Macs do not have 32-bit clean ROMs, and
because of this, you cannot use 32-bit addressing. This leaves us with a
silly 16 MB addressing limit.
Because of this, no matter how much RAM I plug into my machine, MultiFinder
and applications can never use more that 16 megabytes. (Actually, it is
even less, because the ROM and NuBus cards also take up address space; I
can get up to 14 meg using Virtual.)
Later Mac II models have 32-bit clean ROMs; on those machines the limit to
usable memory is so dizzyingly high that the concept of "Out of Memory"
errors may well disappear: the only reason for adding RAM to a machine with
gigabytes of virtual memory is to increase performance.
As new (and ever more badly-written) software starts using this capability,
we with our original Mac II's will be left behind. And before you say "so
are Plus/SE/Classic users", remember that those machines were designed with
this limitation, whereas the 32-bit dirtiness of the Mac II ROMs is really
just a *bug*.
With buggy software, we expect fixes and cheap/free updates, so why should
it be any different with the software in ROM? It would pain me a lot, apart
from souring me on the Mac experience, if Apple decides to let all Mac II
users underuse the perfectly good hardware in their machines because of a
bug in the ROMs. Most of you will agree with me that the current policy is
unsatisfactory, to say the least: to get a 32-bit clean machine, II/IIx
owners can get a IIfx upgrade, IIcx owners can upgrade to a IIci, and SE/30
owners are out in the cold.

Apple, are you listening? Please offer a 32-bit clean ROM for the old Mac IIs,
I wouldn't mind paying a few bucks to get it! Let's keep these machines in
commission just a bit longer - not everyone *needs* a IIfx!

If you agree with me, let the world know! If Apple becomes aware that a large
number of Mac II users want such an upgrade, it might motivate them to get it
out the door.

 - Thomas (thomas@duteca.et.tudelft.nl)