From: GAYNOR@agvax2.ag.ohio-state.edu (Jim Gaynor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: New Rumors: no US IIvi, crippled LC ...
Date: 27 Sep 92 00:23:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: magnus.1992Sep27.002312.26642
Organization: The Ohio State University - OCES
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.24

The following are RUMORS discussed in the latest (9/28) MacWEEK.  Only
rumors, and not to be taken as any sort of gospel.  Yet, I found them
of enough interest to post and comment on them here.

Remember guys - RUMORS.  No official Apple word on any of this.  Zip.

Mac IIvi not to be sold in US?
------------------------------

According to the "Mac the Knife" column in the 9/28 MacWEEK, the
Macintosh IIvi will -not- be marketed in the US.

For those of you who don't know the stats of Mac CPUs long before they
are announced :), the IIvi is based on the same chassis and motherboard
as the Performa 600 and IIvx (3 NuBus slots, one PDS slot, metal case,
lotsa on-board video, space for internal CD-ROM).  The IIvi, unlike
the IIvx and Performa 600, only has a 16Mhz 68030, and no FPU or
cache, although rumor has it that the CPU can be upgraded.

Sounds like the US is getting a tiny taste of Apple's treatment of the
rest of the world (the Performas are only being marketed in the US).

Now, before the flaming begins, I'd like to see some discussion on
theoretical reasons behind this marketing decision. As a bit of food
for thought, I offer some comparison between the IIvi, IIsi, and LC II

		LC II		IIvi			IIsi
		-----		----			----
CPU		16 Mhz 68030	same			20 Mhz 68030
Slots		1 PDS		3 Nubus, 1 PDS		1 PDS/Nubus
FPU		nope		nope			nope
cache		nope		nope			nope
Data bus*	16 bit		32 bit			32 bit
Video		onboard VRAM	onboard VRAM		System RAM (slower)
Internal CDROM	nope		possible		nope

* the 68030 is a 32-bit processor.  A 16-bit bus means the processore
can only operate at half its effective speed when accessing anything
else on the bus.  Not the greatest design decision in the world, but
it does save some bucks on manufacturing costs.

As I see it, the IIvi offers a very expandable mid/low level machine,
something we haven't seen for a good bit from Apple.  But, other than
the slots, the IIvi fits rather uncomfortably inbetween the LC II and
the IIsi. A lot depends on what the IIvi's street price would be,
compared to the IIsi and LC II.  The IIvi would most likely hurt IIsi
sales - but I would think that would be good for Apple.  (By
eliminating the IIsi and it's unique chassic/motherboard, compared to
the IIvi which shares a lot with other Macs).

One thumb up and one thumb down if this one is true.  I can't really
decide if it's a Good Thing or a Bad Thing.

Future Low-End LC to be a "crip"?
---------------------------------

In the same column I reference above, a future LC is mentioned
(ETA - early 93).  Apple seems to be trying to make a color Mac that
will sell for under US$1000.  So that means re-making the LC.  But how
to strip it to meet the cost line?  Here's what they might be doing:

- Shipping with only 2MB of RAM (sigh - I was so happy Apple had seemed
to settle on 4MB as standard issue.)

- Push-eject FDHD (yep - killing the auto-eject feature.  Bad move,
especially on a machine-for-the-masses.  How many novices do you know
that have push-ejected disks during access on DOS, Amiga, or Atari
machines?  Yep - bad juju here.)

- No SCSI.  (Yow!  The internal 40MB drive for this Mac "Yugo" would be
an IDE drive.  The throws a lot of the vaunted Mac expandability and
convenience-of-adding-perephials right out the window.)

So, whaddaya think of that?  I really don't like the idea of loosing
something as nasty as IDE into the Mac world, and this Mac "Yugo" LC
sounds too much like PC hardware running the Mac OS for my taste.  Two
thumbs down if Apple actually goes through with it.

Where's my new CD-ROM?
----------------------

The last real juicy one in the 9/28 MacWEEK was the rumor that we
won't be seeing an external version of Apple's new dual-speed CD-ROM
anytime soon.  So what, you ask?  The new CD-ROM accesses CD-ROM data
much faster (by using a higher rotation speed for data CDs, and
slowing down again for audio), and is compatible with Kodak's PhotoCD. 
Multimedia paradise, neh?

According to the Knife, Apple's waiting on this to let the 3rd party
folks at the market for the new CD-ROM engine first.  Great for
relations with them, but all the folks hungry for a faster CD-ROM for
their QuickTime clips can't be too happy with this.

The Knife didn't mention if Apple would only be selling the new CD-ROM
with the IIvx/vi/Performa 600, or if folks would be able to get an
internal for, say, a Quadra 900 or 950.  (Or even to put inside their
own home-grown case).

Two thumbs down if true - if Apple is committed to multimedia as the
seem to be, they should be doing their damnedest to make this drive
available to lots and lots of Mac users.

* * *

That's it for the current rumors - should be more than enough food for
discussion :-).

Source: Mac The Knife, MacWEEK, 9/28/1992.  CompuServe/ZMAC.


---
   Jim Gaynor    | "Man-of-Many-Beeping-Sounds-and-Flashing-Lights" - KAJ
OSU/ACS/FMS/OCES | <gaynor@agvax2.ag.ohio-state.edu> or <gaynor.4@osu.edu>
Disclaimer:  Everything stated here and above is -my- opinion.  Mine mine mine!
"We're here as the official representatives of the Y chromosome" - M Silverberg
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware