Re: Supercard

Mark McDougall <markm@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi,

If one were to design an all-in-one 'Supercard' for the Apple II, what
would the desired features be?

I've come up with...

1. VGA adapter
2. Mockingbird clone
3. Ethernet adapter
4. Memory expansion card
5. Z80 card
6. Super Serial Card
7. Storage (CF/SD)
8. Various enhanced graphics boards
9. PS/2 or USB interface for keyboard/mouse

Is there anything else on anyone's wish-list?

Regards,

My wishlist:

A ROADMAP TO ENHANCING THE APPLE II IN ITS 30TH

1.-Make whatever but make it in such a way that it plugs in a real apple
II. Be it in a slot or directly to the processor socket. Very few people
nowadays will be willing to use an Apple II that does not look like an
Apple II. The Apple II is beautiful. Let's not try to enhance it by
trashing it in the first place. A great part of the joy comes from the
fact that with such a thing you *upgrade* your much beloved Apple II. If
it's not going to look like an Apple II and it's going to be so
different from a real Apple II in everyother aspect, then in the end
what happens is that it's not an Apple II at all : it's another strange
and different thing that nobody will want/like. This does not mean that
"the thing" can't run standalone. When plugged in a real Apple II it
"enhances" it. When not pluged in, as the main subsystems are embedded
in it much of its functionality remains.

2.-Compatibility is a must, and it comes at a price. Low video
resolution with limited position-dependant colors for example. Small
video buffers, video bits shifted out in the opposite direction, color
phase reversal between a video buffer byte and the next, windowed pixels
that span 4 bits among consecutive 7 bits "bytes" that happen to
alternate between main and aux memory banks, painfull bank-switching
schemes, etc. But as it has to be an Apple II, you have to take it all.

3.-Speed. Do what you can, remember the paddles, the tricky dependecies
that exist between the disk II state sequencer and the exact bus
activity that takes place while certain 6502 instructions are being
executed. The keyboard bottleneck. Etc. Much can still be done though.
Good Luck.

4.-Don't throw the slots. They are fun. They are not so slow. They are
well known. They are the first that did not require switches to
configure the plugin cards. Even ethernet can run "well enough" from a
slot.

5.-A faster, multimegabytes per second serial bus interface can probably
be hacked via the remaining unused pins in the slots, or via the various
daisy-chain pins, if it were a must.

<fantasizer>

6.-Enhancements at the price of incompatibility.

6.1- Better video, be it more colors, more pixels or more video pages,
means more memory.
6.2- More memory used to mean more banks and bank-switching pains. Does
not have to be so anymore. Remember we've entered the incompatibility
arena.
6.3- More speed : given the need for speed and memory, I believe it
would make sense to expand the instruction set... !

7.-EXPANDING THE INSTRUCTION SET.

7.1-Why ?
-Because the 6502 addressing is limited to 64k.
-Because the 6502 data bus is only 8 bits wide.
-Because the first logical step in the search for increased speed and
memory is to widen both of them.
-Because a math coprocessor should be added too.
-Because it can be done without breaking any code.
-Because increasing the memory calls for it.

7.2-How ?
-By prefixing the new opcodes with a 00, that happens to be the 6502 BRK
opcode. When/if code containing expanded intructions is executed in an
"unenhaced" Apple II just a BRK will happen. There's no need to "enable"
nothing. There not any "is it enabled" paranoia. You loose one byte per
opcode, but memory is cheap nowadays.

7.3-What do you get ?
-The Applesoft interpreter etcetera could be easily patched to benefit
from then new instructions' increased speed, for example the fp math
would fly with the aid of the math coprocessor instructions, HGR
routines could be patched for higher resolutions/colors/speed, etc.
-Block moves speed would be substantially increased.
-The expanded instruction set could be... "sweet 32" :-)
-The expanded instruction set could be... optimally chosen.

</fantasizer>

You asked Mark !
--
Jorge Chamorro Bieling
.

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