Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpcc05!hpsciz!aland@hpsciz.sc.hp.com
From: aland@hpsciz.sc.hp.com (Alan Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Mac Emulation Board
Message-ID: <770001@hpsciz.sc.hp.com>
Date: 17 May 91 00:12:50 GMT
References: <477@wybbs.mi.org>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Santa Clara, CA
Lines: 31

> Does anyone have information or experience on using the Hydra One
> board from Hydra Systems in San Jose, California?  This board is supposed
> to emulate a Macintosh SE on a PC.  The board lists for $995 plus the cost
> to acquire Mac ROMS.  This is a little too much money to spend if it won't
> do the job well.

I've seen the prototypes and I was impressed.  But I know the designers,
so take my opinions appropriately.  The Hydra board is most of a Mac SE
packaged onto a PC card (a full one, with some custom parts).  It
intercepts your EGA/VGA signal, and the floppy disk cable.  This allows
you to read/write Mac floppies in your 3.5" PC floppy, and still be able
to use it as a PC device.  You run a special program on the PC to make
it act as a host to the Mac; pressing the right mouse button causes the
mouse to control the screen, moving it left causing more of the Mac
screen to slide over the PC screen (the Mac screen slides in from the
right).  The host software makes the PC's keyboard, serial/parallel
ports, mouse and hard disk usable from the Mac.

Using it as a Mac was fine.  It seems faster than most low end Macs (it
has a 16MHz 68K, and the PC is doing hard disk caching).  I didn't try
cut and paste between the Mac and PC.  It can also use a SCSI disk
(connector on the Hydra card) as a Mac only device.  An Appletalk port
is also on the card.

Obvious limitations: it is only monochrome, even with a color EGA/VGA.
I'm sure there are other quirks, once you get into the nitty gritty
details, but I was able to do useful work with it, once I got used to
the idea of Mac programs on the PC>

Alan Davis
aland@hpscdc