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Path: utzoo!utcs!mnetor!seismo!caip!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.apple
Subject: Re: Re: Apple //GS
Message-ID: <533@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Jul-86 15:17:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbmvax.533
Posted: Tue Jul 15 15:17:47 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Jul-86 22:27:08 EDT
References: <2685@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 48

> 
> No matter what they do, it will have to have a compatibility mode that
> is indistinguishable from the current IIe botch.  In order to keep the
> cost down, the new mode will probably extend the IIe botch, rather than
> do it 'right' (whatever that means to you personally!)  But to compete
> with the Amiga and the ST520/1040, they will have to have something
> pretty impressive.  I wonder if it can be done.   Full backwards
> compatibility can me *expensive* to maintain.  Apple won't get rich just
> selling upgrades to people who already have II series machines.  So they
> will have to have something that is cost/performance competitive with the
> Amiga and Atari machines to capture new users.  But if it won't make
> them rich, you can bet they won't do it.
> 
> Given those constraints, I wonder if it can be done...
> (Does anybody remember the Apple III?  It did a lot of things 'right',
> and it was a commercial failure.)
> 
> Rick Thomas

I'd expect that the compatibility should be simple to maintain -- the 
current Apple IIwhatever video circuitry is simple enough to occupy only
part of a common chip, and any new circuitry could share some of the old
logic (video shift registers, etc.) without becoming too crippled.  The
main thing that I wonder about, however, is the most rumored resolution
on the new thing -- some 760x500x7 or so pixels.  It might make some
sense to address memory on byte boundaries (1 byte == 1 pixel), but of
course this would require 256K just for video memory.  Though that's only
$16-$32 or so in memory chips, so it might be possible. The 65816 processor is
weak compared to the competition's 68000 series, so I'd imagine if they
didn't go to byte-pixel addressing, they'd have to have some hardware 
assist to get any kind of video performance out of the thing in the
higher resolution mode.  Though it sounds like Aplle is back on the
right track; I wouldn't expect them to settle for a 640x200 only display
at this point.


-- 
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Dave Haynie    {caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh

	"I don't feel safe in this world no more, 
	 I don't want to die in a nuclear war,
	 I want to sail away to a distant shore
	 And live like an ape man."
				-The Kinks

	These opinions are my own, though for a small fee they be yours too.
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