Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ISIS.MIT.EDU!MARK From: MARK@ISIS.MIT.EDU (Mark Kriegsman / VAX Resource Center) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: GS+ and next generation //s {actually ][s :) } Message-ID: <8802271745.AA00234@ATHENA.MIT.EDU> Date: 27 Feb 88 17:49:00 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 91 The bitplanes/graphics coproc. ideas are good, but the thing that has let the ][ family stick around for more than ten year is *flexibility*: o No other machine was created as EXPANDABLE as the //. I suspect the Mac II will live some kind of along and prosperous life due to it's deliberately expandable design. o No other machine has had such a diverse array of applications and techniques developed for it. In a sense, the -lack- of a _specific_ graphics copr. (with specific abilities and limitations) has caused the development community to constantly explore new ideas **IN SOFTWARE**. Software is pretty much cheaper than hardware, in some sense. Starting with a generalized machine, like the //s, anything can be implimented. o The //s have traditionally been like the "old style" Lego sets: many pieces in a few general shapes that allowed more diverse creation. By selecting new features to add in HARDWARE, the //s would become like the "new style" Lego sets: a smaller number of each kind of piece, with many specialized pieces (like a certain axle bearing, or a certain bevel block that only fits in certain places). I have always thought of the //s as generic Turing machines. They were composed of simple parts that could be combined IN SOFTWARE to accomplish any given task. Yes, display hardware can be a limiting factor, and I would like a palette-driven high resolution polychromatic display for the //s. Yes, the dedicated sound RAM can limit applications. (look harder at the word dedicated, and think about the Lego) My dream // is not "this graphics copr, and this sound copr, and this I/O copr" but more like: a faster, bigger (RAM), BUT STILL GENERALIZED machine: How about a 65816 (or 65832! Anyone heard more rumors about this, other than the reference to it in the documentation for the '816?) running at some large number of MHz, like 20. A nifty little pipelined processor with a small instruction set (think Lego again) is a fine idea. Furthermore, it could still run "old" '02 code! And how about letting this machine have all it's RAM addressable, like a true 24 or 32 bit bus? (this depends more on what the '832 wants.) I'd like a big, generic bitmapped display, with a bunch of colors and a color-lookup table. Yes, it's horrible watching the GS refresh the desktop. But if it were simply FASTER, that would be great. Adding hardware specific to the task limits the tasks that can use it. (want to try and reprogam the "DESKTOP GRAPHICS" chip to do shaded 3D z-buffered graphics?) The flexibility MUST be left in if the // line is to live up to "Apple II Forever!" I actually think that the GS might have strayed from the philosophy that carried the //s to fame and glory, and I'd rather see a "Super //" than a GS+. Let the software figure out the details. Remember what the graphics looked like on the //s in 1977? Notice how much better they are today ON THE SAME HARDWARE? No had to upgrade their hardware to change from playing "Star Cruiser" to playing "Zaxxon" or "Hadron" or "WayOut" or "{name your favorite great-looking graphics program}". I'd still rather market software that can say "Runs on any Apple // with 48K." When the upper limit of what the hardware can support is ACTUALLY reached, then it's time to come out with a new generation of hardware. But that new hardware should have no ceiling in sight, because it comes up faster than you think. I cannot say how much I hope the next // machine is more generic, and more powerful. But I do hope that. Any thoughts? Apple are you listening? Let's not make the next Apple // an Amiga, ok? -Mark Kriegsman Mark%ISIS@Athena.MIT.EDU (internet) Mark%ISIS%Athena.MIT.EDU@INTERBIT (bitnet) PS. Anyone want me to post the program I wrote that gives TRUE 80 column display (560 horiz points) on an unmodified ][ / ][+ ? How about the one that lets you control the volume of the speaker-that-has-no- volume-control on any ][? How about the "bouncing ball" demo (like the Amiga's 'boing') that runs on any ][? How about the one that lets you draw graphics in 16 colors with no orange-next-to-green style restrictions, and supports a color lookup table that also runs on and ][ that has had the "color-mod" (remember that one, folks?) ? PPS. Get the idea?