Subject: Re: More Card Questions From: spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) Date: Mon, Sep 14, 1998 17Ç470 Message-id: <14SEP199820475292@vax2.concordia.ca> In article "Marlin Bates, IV" writes... >On one of the ROM 3 machines the sockets for the ROMS are BIGGER (i.e. more >pins) than the other ROM 03 machine. Also, only one of the chip model numbers >match. The other has a number of 341-0278 and is on a sticker (not silk >screened). What you describe above is a leaked beta version of the 'ROM 3' firmware. I believe these were never intended to be publically sold but accidentally leaked out into the public (probably through dealers who sold their demo display models, that is one theory). The masked ROMs (with silk-screen numbers on the chips) are the final/public firmware, labeled '341-0748' and '341-0737'. The vast majority of Apple IIgs with 1 Megabyte of RAM have this firmware. The leaked beta ROMs (which came on EPROMs) are labled '341-0749' '341-0728'. The features between the two ROM 3's are identical, however there are some serious bugs in the internal beta revision you have. David Empson disassembled the two ROMs to compare the differences and his report should be archived on Dejanews or the Ground site (of course David is still comp.sys.apple2 and can repost the details). :) My memory is a little fuzzy on what the issues were, but I think one problem had to do with a buggy version of print manager toolset. Overall though, the beta ROMs are quite servicable for day to day use, unless I'm forgetting something. >I got a couple of new cards and need some IDs if you would. > >I got a FastRAM SCSI card Rev. D. I know what this one is, question is: is >it better that an Apple Fast SCSI card (Sandwich II)? Overall the RamFAST is the better of the two SCSI controllers. The RamFAST holds either 256K or 1 MB of cache memory, for look- ahead cache reading and background writing. It also has built-in ROM utilities to format, partition and configure your devices, it even has a tape backup utility in there. The best feature is it is up to twice as fast as the Apple controller under GS/OS, and up to eight times faster under ProDOS 8. The name "RamFAST" is quite accurate, considering it operates your hardrive almost as fast as files stored on a RAM Disk (at least from my observation, on a 10ms or less drive, spinning at 4500 RPMs). The disadvantages of the RamFAST are it doesn't support its own SCSI ID (in order to let you use 8 devices instead of the standard 7) so some of the newer drives won't work, such as the Quantum Fireball series. I've also heard rumours it has glitches with any one large device of 1 gigabyte or larger, but not many devices making up that same amount of storage. One of my dislikes about the RamFAST is it can only see the first 12 partitions of any device, and ignores the rest. This means you have to disable partitions or limit the number of partitions on your hardrive. Considering the ideal amount of space for most IIgs's is under 200-300 MB, these aren't really a major issue. >I also got an unidentifiable 4 MB Memory card. It works as a 4M card so I >figure what the heck. Not all 4 MB boards were created equal. Some of the older ones did not support DMA, and if so, would conflict with the RamFAST. If that is the case, you'll need to disable DMA to the RamFAST SCSI controller. A bit more detail about the card may help indentify which card you have, and whether it supported DMA or not. Applied Engineering memory boards were notorious for having problems with DMA, though they also put their name on anything they manufactured so I doubt you have one. >Here is what I am NOT sure what it is: > >The following was in an ROM 01 machine: small card, Says, "Software >Dimensions, Inc., Firmware ID Card, SerNO 1684" > >What is this? Unless you can provide more details, I'll have to pass. >Next card in an ROM 3 machine: Labeled "ECHO+" Street Electronics Corp. Had >a speaker attached to it inside the IIgs. Has potentiometers labelled Vol 1 >and Vol2. The speaker was connecvted to a minispeaker connector labeled >"Mono", next to that is the same type of port labelled "speaker" I can make >my guesses but would prefer accuracy. Is in Solt 4 This is a sound card primarily designed for the 8-bit Apple II+/e. It provided a speech chip which could produce a synthesized computer voice in an unlimited vocabulary (robotic and artifical) or a limited word vocabulary of about 400 words in a *very* realistic female voice. Although it was mostly thought of as a speech card, it also contained a pair of AY-3-8913 sound chips, giving it 6 voices and 2 white-noise generators for stereo music and sound effects. This card in an Apple IIgs is technically redundant as it has a built-in Ensoniq synthesizer chip capable of far superior music and speech abilities. However, relatively little software was written to take advantage of the chip, especially in the area of educational software. For this reason it was common for schools to plug in an Echo+ (or similar) speech card for the vast number of 8-bit software titles out there that supported the card. >Next card in smae machine was "Quickie Controller P/N 121489" by "Vitesse, >Inc." has a mini-DIN 8 connector port out the back of the IIgs. Is in slot 2 This is an interference to hook up to the Quicker hand-scanner. In order to use it you need to find an old hand-scanner which used the Omron 1700 scan head (I think IBM scanners like the Logitech Scanman is one) and the software Vitesse provided to operate it. Joe Kohn (http://www.crl.com/~joko) sells the software which will allow you to capture up to 400 DPI in 4-bit greyscale. Make sure to ask for version 2.x, as it does a far superior scanning job (I think Joe now ships v2.x and v3.x on the same disk now anyway, after I pointed this fact out to him). FYI, you can also plug the controller and scanner into an 8-bit Apple II computer, but you will be limited to lesser resolution and no greyscales (just 1-bit B&W, pixels either on or off). >Next card is a complete enigma: it has no identifying marks, is not in a slot >BUT does have what looks to be some sort of mini stereo plug hole out the back >of the IIgs it has a power connected to the fan power plug on the iigs >motherboard AND some sort of ribbon cable attached to "J25" on the mother >board (the plug connector near the memory expansion slot) Sounds like the RWP HyperStudio slotless digitizer. The Ensoniq chip has a built-in ADC and DAC, to record/playback digital sound. Unfortunately Apple left out a "mic" input and stereo output jack, and left it up to 3rd parties to provide solutions to getting the stereo sound out and any kind of sound in ('J25' is the set of molex pins Apple provided for doing I/O with the chip). The Hyperstudio digitizer, with Soundshop or AudioZap for example, will allow to you digitize monorial sound. If you want to get stereo output or digitize in 2 channel stereo audio, you'll need to replace it with another product. Alltech (http://www.allelec.com) still sells a combination stereo input/output card called the Soundmeister. It has been recently discontinued though, so only while supplies last. There are many other combination stereo/digitizer cards available used if you can find them (e.g. AE Audio Animator and SonicBlaster, MDIdeas SuperSonic, or the FutureSound). The FutureSound and Audio Animator were clearly the best two ever produced for the IIgs. Mitchell Spector spec@vax2.concordia.ca