Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.emulations
Subject: MINI REVIEW: Emplant MAC IIx emulator (review text)
From: shambarg@netcom.com (Scott Shambarger)
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 09:40:17 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Keywords: Emplant, emulator, MAC
Summary: Review text of a new MAC II/IIx/IIcx emulator for the Amiga

			EMPLANT MINI-REVIEW
		     Review by: Scott Shambarger
			shambarg@netcom.netcom.com

	PRODUCT: Emplant MAC -II/IIx/IIcx Emulator
	AUTHOR : Jim Drew & Joe Fenton
	COMPANY: Utilities Unlimited, Inc.
		  (602) 680-9004		 

REVIEW SCOPE

	I have decided to write this review as a summary of where this
product currently stands in development.  The product is quite
useable, and features that are planned for the near future will make
it quite complete.  I am not associated with Utilities Unlimited,
(except maybe as an unsolicited beta-tester) and have no financial
interests in the product's success.
	(please excuse all spelling errors, I didn't spell-check this)

OVERVIEW

	The Emplant emulator is a hardware/software combination that
allows the use of an 68020/68030 powered Amiga to run an environment
almost identical to that of a MAC II/IIx/IIcx. (68040 compatability is
unconfirmed).  The hardware can support Appletalk and a SCSI interface
depending on configuration.  The software currently supports hard
drive support, up to 16 color 640X400 emulation, and co-exists
favorably in the multitasking environment of AmigaDOS on its own
screen.

REQUIREMENTS

	The emulator requires MAC II/IIx/IIcx ROMs and System 6.0.5
or greater.  It currently ships as a Zorro II card for the A2000 or
A3000 computers.  A4000 compatablity is "soon" and an A1200 board
is in the works.  You have the option of using Chip or Fast memory,
but I would suggest using Fast and plan on having ALOT of it.

BACKGROUND
	I have been caught up in the Emplant ferver since the product
was first vapor in early '92.  Having waited over six months for the
product to actually ship I had allowed my expectations to become
a little overblown.  Hence, when I finally received my Emplant board
and associated software, (especially after at least a week of panic
that Utilities Unlimited had closed up and headed south), I was
inclined to give up in dispair together with quite a number of
copatriots in the Usenet community.
	Since the Emplant board first shipped, the software has gone
through quite a few changes.  After downloading what must be my 6th or
7th upgrade from the Utilities Unlimited BBS, I can finally approach
the product as a functioning entity (although not a complete one).
Version 1.7 of the Emplant MACII software now runs at speeds
comparable to a true MAC II.  Although it still lacks sound, Amiga
printer support, and a conventional way of supporting MAC low-density
disks, it can now stand as a usable substitute for the real thing.

PRODUCT SUMMARY AND REVIEW ENVIRONMENT

	Hardware:	A3000/25  2Meg Chip/4Meg Fast
			Emplant board, Appletalk option
			Mac IIx ROMs

	Software:	AmigaDOS 1.3/2.04/3.0 (superkickstart)
			Emplant MACII v1.7
			AmigaVideo v2.2

Functional in version 1.7 software:

 o MAC II/IIx/IIcx ROM compatable (required)
 o Uses all 32bit memory on A3000 and some accellerators (VXL at
	least)
 o Hard disk compatable, currently only formats upto 20Meg
	partitions, but can read any size partitions if
	formated by another MAC entity (ie. Amax).  Removable hard
        drives supported.
 o Ram disk supported; (all track oriented AmigaDOS devices are
	supported)
 o Appletalk printer/network supported (I haven't tested this)
 o Disk formats supported:
	Amax	:Amiga drive compatable, used by Amax II/II+ Mac
		 Plus emulator by Readysoft, custom.
	Emplant	:Amiga drive compatable, claimed to be faster
		 than Amax format, custom.
	MAC (low density): Uses additional hardware called
		SYBIL (sold by Utilities Unlim.) to read
		on Amiga drives.  I've had no luck with SYBIL.
 o Amiga video supported using a chunky pixel to planer conversion
	program.  This program copies MAC graphics (stored using a
	method incompatable with the current Amiga custom chips to a
	displayable form in an Amiga intuition screen.  Video update
	rate for this conversion can be set by the user from 6 frames
	a second upto 60.  I have found 30-60fps very smooth and have
	not suffered a significant slowdown in MAC system performance.
	Modes currently supported:
		Black and White (1 bit) (very fast)
		4 color (2 bit)	(very fast)
		16 color (4 bit) (slower, but useable even at 60 fps
		   video conversion rate)
 o Multitasks with AmigaDOS; allow a forground and background priority
	based on whether or not the MAC screen is activated.
 o Support for 32bit Quickdraw.
 o System 7.0.1 & 7.1 support (I haven't tested this either)
 o Appletalk serial support from an AmigaDOS driver, so you can use
	the appletalk port as a second serial port.
 o Noclick for Amiga drives

NOT functional in version 1.7 software, but forthcoming according to
the author:

 o Disk formats not supported in this version include IBM (low and
	high density) and MAC high density, slated for next software
	release.  Also Amax drive interface is claimed to be
	forthcoming.
 o Amiga parallel printer/serial support from MAC side.
 o Mac sound support. 
 o AGA mode support, all graphics modes, up to 256 colors.

PERFORMANCE

Speed Tests: (Using Speedometer v3.1)

	Amiga video:	ESC on 25Mhz A3000
	Emplant:	AmigaVideo Driver v2.2
	Mac system:	System 6.0.7

====================================================================
Overall  (all with CPU caches ON, and using only 32bit Fast Mem)

Software:	   Emplant	Emplant	    Emplant	Amax 2.5
# colors:	      4		   4	      16	  2
Update rate (fps):   10		  30	      60	 n/a
--------------------------------------------------------------------
CPU		    6.03	 6.03	     5.73	 6.60
Graphics (1bit)	    6.88	 6.13	     5.05	 6.10
Hard disk speed	    1.51	 1.50	     1.47	 1.66
Math		    5.83	 5.83	     3.16	 5.56
 (1.0=Mac Classic)

KWhetstones	    7.06	 7.06	     3.76	 5.40
Dhrystones	    5.39	 5.39	     5.18	 5.28
 (1.0=Mac Classic)

FPU KWhetstones	    1.86	 1.86	     1.79	 1.91
 (1.0=Mac II)

====================================================================
32bit Quickdraw

Video Driver:		2.2	  2.2	   2.2	    2.3
Update rate (fps):	10	  30	   60	    30
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 1 bit (black & white)	1.69	 1.50	  1.19	   1.49
 2 bit (4 color)	1.57	 1.15	  0.86	   1.15
 4 bit (16 color)	0.85	 0.47	  0.32	   0.48
   (1.0=Mac II)

Note: The system really bogs down in 16 color mode on an ECS machine.
This is due to DMA contension and is a result of the Amiga hardware
and not the emulation as such.

FINAL NOTES

 o The emulator requires a program added to the start of the s:startup-
	sequence.  This program reboots the machine the first time
	it is run, and then patches some system vectors when run on
	the subsequent boot.  There may be some compatability problems
	with this....
 o I have a few final notes from my experience using Emplant.  First I'd
	like to note that even if you choose only one drive for MAC use, all
	Amiga drives are disabled (at least under 2.04+).
 o In 16 color mode, Amax and MAC format disks are not read or written
	correctly, and even the custom Emplant format is not written
	correctly.  Hard drives work fine in this mode.
 o The board does not appear to work on the A4000 correctly yet (gathered
	from other Emplant user comments). An A1200 board is in the 
	works.
 o Memory is constrained to the largest continuous block of free memory.
	I therefore recommend booting the emulator after a system reboot
	so that the memory isn't fragmented.
 o No C= installer (yet)
 o Amigavideo driver v2.3 is a memory hog and doesn't appear to speed up
	ECS machines, (it uses a large MMU table for conversion)
 o Mac IIci/IIsi not supported (yet)
 o On the A3000, a system failure results in a "bus error" (yellow screen)
	due to the modification of the MMU table.  This require one
	to turn off the machine to reboot.
 o When you activate the MAC screen, the MAC mouse also clicks on whatever
	it is currently over.  So if the MAC mouse is over a Delete File
	<OK> gadget, you can't activate the screen without clicking it.
 o Don't plan on using a 9600 baud modem with Emplant in 16 color mode
	in the background.

COMPATABILITY

	I have had a chance to try many programs on Emplant, and I 
attempted to use the program thoroughly enough to see if it misfunctioned.
These programs include (no printer tests):

(sadly I didn't think to test these under MultiFinder, or MultiFinder
itself, oops)

	MacWrite II - ok		MacDraw II v1.1 - ok
	Word 4.0 - ok			Cricket Draw - ok
	After Dark v2.0 - ok		Risk (B&W) - ok
	StuffIt v1.6 - ok		Tetris (B&W) - ok
	Lode Runner (B&W) - ok		Pipe Dreams (B&W) - ok
	Robosport (B&W & 16 color) - ok
	Sim Earth 1.0 (16 color) - not only works but is much
		prettier and faster than the Amiga version...

The only program that didn't work 100% was Excel 3.0.  Strangely
enough the program itself runs perfectly, but after one quits and the
Desktop pops back up, the system crashes (Amiga and MAC).

CONCLUSION

	Emplant appears to be just past the threshold of being a usable
product.  I feel that there are still some key functions that are
missing, amoung them Amiga parallel printer support and sound, 100%
compatability, and at the very least Amax interface MAC drive
support; but fixes for these appear to be not only in the making and
soon to be completed.  In my opinion, this product could become a
viable alternative to a the purchase of a complete second system for
anyone who needs the use of a Mac II.  It remains to be seen if it can
become an alternative to such a purchase for a true MAC enthusiast.
I believe its true selling point is its ability to seamlessly multitask
with AmigaDOS.  In fact most of this document was written on Memacs
while Emplant was running in the background.

MAC and MAC II are copyrights of Apple Computer, Inc.
Amiga is a copyright of Commodore, Inc.
Utilities Unlimited can be reached at:	(602) 680-9004
				  BBS:	(602) 453-9767

---------------------End of Emplant mini-review----------------------------
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.emulations