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From: "Tracy_E_Thieret.WBST128"@XEROX.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k.pc
Subject: Tiny Giant vs. PT 68K-2
Message-ID: <871010-061430-2379@Xerox>
Date: Sat, 10-Oct-87 09:14:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: Xerox.871010-061430-2379
Posted: Sat Oct 10 09:14:11 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Oct-87 23:51:03 EDT
Sender: mwm@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 91
Approved: info-68k@ucbvax.berkeley.edu

Folks,
I've written and talked to the two companies (Hawthorne and Peripheral
Tech.) about their respective offerings because I want a computer which
will do REAL Arrays without the funny segmentation thing.  My conclusion
was to purchase the PT 68K-2 so you know up front.  The standard
disclaimers apply.  I don't work for any of the companies involved.  For
that matter I really don't work very much at all.  I get paid for
playing at my hobby.  I also do some xerography in order to justify it
to the management.

The statements made below are culled from the paper blurbs from the
respective companies and are not guaranteed to be error free.  My typing
is not error free either but as they say "The information was obtained
from the most reliable sources available."

PROCESSOR/SPEED
	TG (aka Tiny Giant): 68000 8MHz
	PT (aka Radio Electronics PT 68K-2) 68000 8,10,12,16 MHz (how much do
you want to pay?)

BOARD SIZE
	TG: Fits on top of a 5.25 floppy disk drive
	PT: Fits in a Baby PC-AT case

TOTAL MEMORY SPACE ON BOARD
	TG: 512K of 64Kx4 DRAM no info on waits, uses Fujitsu (?) DRAM
controller
	PT: 1024K of 256K DRAM no waits at 10MHz (150ns) uses discrete
propriatory design controller

DEVICE COMPLEMENT
	TG: Floppy Disk controller, 2 serial, parallel, timer
	PT: Floppy Disk COntroller, 4 serial, 2 parallel, timer, battery backed
clock, 4k battery backed SRAM.

EXPANSION INTERFACE
	TG: Brings all the 68000 pins to a header for piggy back boards
	PT: has 6 PC-XT compatible slots on motherboard.  Doesn't support
memory in them but does support Herc graphics card and PC keyboard if
present on bootup otherwise uses one of the serial ports.  Hard disk
(Winchester) controllers will fit there too and be recognized by the OS.

MEMORY MAP
	TG: Sparce device decoding - each device takes up lots of locations (as
far as I can tell w/o a schematic.)  They do publish their map in some
of their docs and it says things like (not a quote) "serial controller -
FD0000 - FDFFFF"
	PT: Less sparse but leaves a 11 MB contiguous area for memory expansion
without any explicit way to put memory there.  Lots of address space for
PC type peripherals.

MEMORY EXPANSION
	TG: Possible (Hawthorne referred to a 2MB piggy back board) by
attaching to the 68000 signals on the expansion connector
	PT: Possible but not trivial.  Pasipheral Tech said that somebody was
working on a daughter board for the 68000 and more memory.  You can't
use the PC expansion slots for mem. expansion even though 2Meg of 68K
address space is reserved for "PC address space slots" (WHY?)

OPERATING SYSTEM
	TG: K-OS1 (say "Chaos" One - Joe Bartel of Hawthorne Tech is
responsible for the pronounciation) has an assembler, source for the OS,
and a compiler for their FORTH like language.  Not an extensive
utilities set.  But does read and write MS-DOS (tr Microsoft) diskettes
as it's normal format.
	PT: This is where the PT board really shines.  Their board will support
SK-DOS - a  single tasking/single user OS with LOTS of utilities.   Not
MS-DOS (tr) format but comes with utilities to read/write them.
Cache/RamDisk, full screen editor, Small C.  In addition the board can
be ordered with OS-9 for the 68K.  I don't know much about this system
($500) but it comes with a REAL C compiler.   I'm not sure but it might
be multi tasking/user. (?)  Get a copy of the 68K Micro Journal for more
info. 

BUCKS:
	TG: $395 for 128K RAM system with O.S. (K-OS1)
	PT: $600 for 1 meg board full up (fully populated) and OS (SK-DOS).
$200 for bare board and startup kit.

Take a look at the October issue of "Radio Electronics" for the PT board
and the last few issues of the "Computer Journal" for Joe Bartell's
column on the Tiny Giant.

As I say, I've ordered the PT card.  It's supposed to be shipped (A&T
for $600 full up 10MHz) next week.  I'll let you know.

Tracy.
----------------------------
My opinions are as well informed as I know how to make them and belong
to me personally.  If you like them send me $25 and I'll send you
periodic updates.