From: shambarg@netcom.COM (Scott Shambarger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: Emplant (software version 1.7)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.emulations
Date: 23 Jan 1993 15:40:33 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Distribution: world
Reply-To: shambarg@netcom.COM (Scott Shambarger)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: hardware, emulator, Macintosh, commercial




PRODUCT NAME

	Emplant MAC II, IIx, and IIcx emulator, with software version 1.7.

	[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  This review was originally posted in
	comp.sys.amiga.emulations.  It was submitted to c.s.a.reviews
	by the author, and I changed the layout to conform with the
	c.s.a.reviews "standard."  - Dan]


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	A hardware Macintosh emulator which runs concurrently with AmigaDOS.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Utilities Unlimited, Inc.
	Address:	1641 McCulloch Blvd., Suite 25-124
			Lake Havasu City, AZ  86403
			USA

	Telephone:	(602) 680-9004
	BBS:		(602) 453-9767

	E-mail:		jdrew@cryo.rain.com (Jim Drew)


LIST PRICE

	I don't know the list price.  I paid $300 for Emplant with
Appletalk.  There is a version with SCSI as well, and a version with neither
Appletalk nor SCSI, but I'm not sure of their prices.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		An Amiga 2000 or 3000 with a 68020 or 68030 processor.
		(68040 compatibility is unconfirmed, A4000 support is
		promised "soon", and an A1200 board is in the works.)

		MAC II/IIx/IIcx ROM's.

	SOFTWARE

		Macintosh System 6.0.5 or greater


COPY PROTECTION

	None.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
		  
	Hardware:	A3000/25, 2Meg Chip RAM, 4Meg Fast RAM.
			Emplant board, Appletalk option
			Mac IIx ROMs

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


REVIEW SCOPE

	I have decided to write this review as a summary of where this
product currently stands in development.  The product is quite usable, 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.


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 compatibility 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 it 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 compatiblity 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 RAM and plan on having A LOT of it.


BACKGROUND

	I have been caught up in the Emplant fervor since the product was
first vaporware in early 1992.  Having waited over six months for the product
actually to 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 co-patriots 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

Functional in Emplant version 1.7 software:

 o	MAC II/IIx/IIcx ROM compatible (required)

 o	Uses all 32bit memory on A3000 and some accelerators (VXL at
	least)

 o	Hard disk compatible, currently only formats up to 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 compatible, used by AMax II/II+ Mac
		 Plus emulator by Readysoft, custom.
	Emplant: Amiga drive compatible, claimed to be faster
		 than AMax format, custom.
	MAC (low density): Uses additional hardware called
		SYBIL (sold by Utilities Unlimited) 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 incompatible 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 up to 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 usable even at 60 fps
		   video conversion rate)

 o	Multitasks with AmigaDOS; allow a foreground 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, an 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 contention 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 compatibility 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
	(according to 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 version 2.3 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 requires 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.


COMPATIBILITY

	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):

	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).

(Sadly I didn't think to test these under MultiFinder, nor test MultiFinder
itself.  Oops.)


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.
Among them are Amiga parallel printer support and sound, 100% compatibility,
and at the very least AMax interface MAC drive support; but fixes for these
appear to be 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 multitask
seamlessly with AmigaDOS.  In fact, most of this review was written in MEmacs
while Emplant was running in the background.

MAC and MAC II are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
Amiga is a trademark of Commodore Business Machines
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---

   Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews
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