Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!cs122aw
From: cs122aw@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Scott Alfter)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: rom 03 upgrade (or lack thereof)
Message-ID: <1990Feb12.004805.1894@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 12 Feb 90 00:48:05 GMT
References: <16573.apple.net@pro-sol>
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 29

In article <16573.apple.net@pro-sol> lbotez@pro-sol.cts.com (Lynda Botez) writes:
>hummmm.  I dunno, but I've had a 11 mhz chip in my transwarp for some time
>now, and while it can't run much faster than 9mhz due to limitations, it
>really wasn't that difficult to acuire.  I'd imagine if you would call
>Western Design and order about 10 of them that you could get them in a couple

Small quantities are OK.  Apple won't commit to a faster GS because WDC can't
supply the volume that Apple would buy in (10000 at a time).

In the same article, dale@pro-colony.cts.com is quoted:
>>From my understanding (but correct me if I'm wrong), Western Design is more
>>involved in designing the chip (Research); and not involved in mass producing
>>the chips (development).  Apple usually purchases its chips from some Taiwan
>>chip manufacturer.  

Apple may buy logic chips and ROMs in Taiwan or some place like it, but the
processors used in Apple computers are made in the USA.  Probably 99% of the
processors in the world are made in the USA.  People may complain that the
Japanese, for example, are stomping us with RAM chips, but RAMs are useless 
without the processors--and our technology in microprocessor design is
unequalled.  Unless the Japanese also pick up on this area, we shouldn't have
too much to fear as long as we keep feeding the world our processors, which
are the chips that make computers run.

Scott Alfter-------------------------------------------------------------------
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