Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!Kevin.Dowling@cmu-ri-rover From: Kevin.Dowling%cmu-ri-rover@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: none Message-ID: <16780@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 15-Feb-84 14:58:47 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16780 Posted: Wed Feb 15 14:58:47 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 21-Feb-84 03:51:54 EST Lines: 94 The latest issue of the EE Times came today and had a couple of interesting articles on the Mac. One told of Steven Jobs's visit to the Boston Computer Society which apparently went very well. "Jobs began by unzipping Mac from a shoulder bag, plugging it in, and running a demonstration program.." TV projectors and a sound system accompanied by Chariot's of Fire music added to the effect. Anyway the Q and A period went well also... Revelations at the meeting included the following: Color-High resolution graphics is planned for the Lisa products and Jobs didn't rule out color for the Mac adding that color has been built into the Mac Quickdraw code from day 1. Pascal and C compiliers will be supplied from Apple and third party firms. Networking for less than $25/station will be supported. A video output option will be available for the Mac. The Mac's capabilities will greatly expand when greater availability of 256Kbit RAMs permit a 512K upgrade for the Mac. Mac's 64K ROM OS offers 68K assembly which can run business software far faster than PC "equivalents" Apple will offer serial and laser printers. An Apple II-e "book computer" is in the works too. A 6502 based machine about the size of the NEC and Radio-Shack machines already on the market. It would have LCD display and color video output. Also a 3-4 Mhz II-e is in the works, this will enable the Apple to rival the IBM-PC on business environment benchmark program routines. Quickdraw account for 20 of ROM, another third supports the Mac's IO structure and memory file allocation and (virtual) disk memory usage. This section also generates the icons and screen utilities including a calculator and game puzzle which Jobs also said are precursors of multiuser capability. The remainder of the ROM code includes some 480 additions to 68K code. Thses routines allow software designers to quickly implement their Mac versions of software. The reason for no 512Kbyte Mac using 64K chips is simply a question of real-estate... there isn't room... Jobs said with 9-12 months Owners of Mac systems will go to their dealers for a simple board swap. The 512k byte decoder logic exists on present Macs. The Mac OS contains many utilities that take advantage of the expanded memory. for example, despite the use of some redundant pixel elimination routines, the typical Mac picture file requires 53K bytes of storage. That places limitations on Mac's ability to buffer operator actions (such as UNDO) Mac now has one layer of UNDO commands, but with 512K versatility should be vastly expanded. That versatility is needed by MacWrite, which cannot easily create documents longer than 9-12 pages. Scrolling screen graphics are written to the microfloppy in "near real-time" redundancy codes are used to compress the picture file size in real-time. Both Micro-softs and Apples Basic run about 10 times faster than BASIC on an IBM-PC. A PASCAL compilier will offer the capabilites of Smalltalk. [ Larry Tessler just gave a talk on Apples "Classcal" here at CMU and it has some neat features of Object-oriented programming languages like hierarchical class structures ] Jobs said Apple wants a UNIX server for the Mac and Lisas. It would be a large disk and a very fast CPU hanging on the network. Apple's printer will use the Canon laser printer engine. Also the Canon system permits limited 4-color (blue, black, red, brown) capability, via chaging toner cartridges. An Apple accessory Appleline will offers IBM 3270 accessabilty for the Mac connects with any IBM mainframe, does as well or better than any IBM-PC. Small "very very inexpensive" 10-20 MegByte file servers will be available this fall for shared Winchester capability. A double sided 80K micro-floppy will debut in about a year. Sony is now ramping up for production. more news at 11... kevin ARPA: nivek@cmu-ri-rover USPO: Robotics Institue c/o C-MU Schenley Park, Pgh. PA 15213 BELL: (412) 578-8830