Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!usc!apple!radius!lemke
From: lemke@radius.UUCP (Steve Lemke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Radius Pivot
Message-ID: <1246@radius.UUCP>
Date: 7 Mar 90 03:27:44 GMT
References: <1745@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: radius!lemke@apple.com
Organization: Radius Inc., San Jose, CA
Lines: 41

In article <1745@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Michael J Kobb) writes:

}  I just got the new MacWorld, and lo and behold, there's an ad from Radius
}for a monitor called the Pivot.  It's a greyscale portrait/landscape monitor.
}That's right, it's both.  It rotates through 90 degrees, so it can be either
}one, and it's apparently self-configuring.

"On the fly," while the computer is running even...  The screen fades out
when you trip the mercury switch inside the unit (occurs at about 45 degrees
of tilt, give or take a few degrees), and it fades back in after the system
has been reconfigured.

}  Has anybody used/tried this monitor?

Yes, extensively.  (But I guess that was to be expected since I headed the
quality assurance testing for the Pivot project.)

}  How much does it cost?

The Pivot Display with tilt and swivel stand is $995.
The Pivot-II Interface card is $695.
The Pivot-SE/30 Interface card is also $695.
The Gray Shades Memory Expansion Kit is $150.

The system comes as a 2-bit (4 shades of gray) and the expansion kit brings
it up to 4-bit (16 shades of gray).

}  And lastly, why in heaven's name are greyscales like this one and Apple's
}only upgradable to 16 color?????  Why not 256?  How much memory can that take?

Unfortunately, it's a bigger deal than just adding a few more memory chip
sockets to the board.  It takes extra circuitry to support the additional
video modes (and twice that of a normal video card since this is two video
cards in one - a portrait card and a landscape card).

Disclaimer:  This is not intended as a commercial for Pivot - I just figured
that I was probably qualified to answer these particular questions.

-- 
----- Steve Lemke, Engineering Quality Assurance, Radius Inc., San Jose -----
----- Reply to: radius!lemke@apple.com    (Coming soon: radius.com ...) -----