From: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!sun!megatest!fortune!hpda!hplabs!hao!cires!nbires!ut-ngp!utastro!bill
Newsgroups: net.micro.apple
Title: 68000 coprocessor card for Apple ][
Article-I.D.: utastro.325
Posted: Wed May  4 14:42:01 1983
Received: Tue May 10 00:54:30 1983




We  recently visited the makers of the Saybrook coprocessor card for the
Apple ][.  It has an 8 or 12.5 MHz 68000 with 128KB of  ram  (expandable
to 512KB if you are rich and buy the new 256K ram chips; if you are poor
you  can  wait for the price to come down.  The on-board address decoder
will handle either type of memory chip).  The card fits into a  standard
Apple  slot  with  a  little room to spare (i.e., it has a "nose job" in
front).  The card has DMA to the Apple memory, which greatly  speeds  up
processor-to-processor  communication.    A  separate  power  supply  is
provided.

The operating system is the Softech P-system  with  Pascal  and  Fortran
(communicates  with  Apple  Pascal  and  runs  68K Pascal).  It supports
64-bit floating point, unlike Apple Pascal.  Being  interpreted,  it  is
not  as fast as the 68K is capable of, but it still goes like a banshee.
They are now getting the last bugs out of the Apple to Saybrook software
interface (the person we talked to was estimating 2 weeks, but  we  know
how these things have a way of extending themselves...)  Even so, it was
impressive.    The  8 MHz board should run about as fast as the Sage (my
memory may fail me, it was my impression that their processor was 6 MHz,
but that may have changed).  At 12.5 MHz there should be  a  substantial
speed advantage.

They  plan  to have a UN*X subset available later this year, which would
make it even more interesting.  The C will be compiled into native code,
not interpreted using  P-code  like  Pascal.    A  hard  disk  would  be
desirable for this option.  The person we talked to said that UN*X would
probably  be  an inexpensive (~$100?) option, but that this could depend
on how much interest there was in it.

Price for the 8 MHz board  is  $1550  (includes  power  supply  and  the
P-system  software).   The 8 MHz board is upgradable to 12.5 for several
$100's.

The manufacturer is



        Analytical Engines, Inc.
        3415 Greystone, Suite 305
        Austin TX 78731
        (512)346-8430



                Fritz Benedict
                Bill Jefferys
                Pete Shelus
                Astronomy Dept
                University of Texas

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