]> http://www.applefritter.com/taxonomy/term/77/0 en http://www.applefritter.com/node/4126 [center][image:4122] The top board is the Cassette interface. Going down you see two blank slots in the extension bus that I added. [image:4123] The front of the Cassette Interface card, the two jacks, top left side are where the cassette player plugs into for the recording and playing back of the tapes. [image:4124] Back of the Cassette Interface card, you can see that I hard wired the jacks and ran the wires to a new set of jacks in the back of the new computer case. [image:4125] This is the tape cassette player that I used with the Apple 1 computer. Read and write functions to the Cassette player was controlled by a switch on the front panel on the new computer case.[/center] Sat, 14 Aug 2004 13:07:29 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/4115 [center][image:4112] The front of the card shows the EPROM's [image:4113] Shows the wire layout. [image:4114] Shows the EPROM board plugged into the extension slot. [image:4112] Sockets are wire wrapped.[/center] Sat, 14 Aug 2004 12:30:32 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/400 For starters, its best to define vaporware. Quite frankly, vaporware is any announced product or technology that never makes it to market. Their are tons of items that fit into the vaporware cloud over the computer industry. The examples this week stem from Power Computing, the first licensed clone maker. They weren't really that secretive with their plans and made a few empty promises... [b]PowerTowerPro G3 275[/b] If you subscribed to any sort of Mac magazine near the end of the cloning era, you probably have an advertisement for this piece of vaporware. Take the standard PowerTowerPro motherboard, tweak it a bit, and add a G3 275 Mhz card with 275 Mhz, 1:1 back side cache to get the PowerTowerPro G3. This was the company's quick and dirty way to capture the speed crown and get G3 systems out before anyone else. It would have succeeded if Apple didn't purchase PowerComputing, out right. [b]PowerComputing Laptop[/b] This machine was only mentioned briefly during the cloning era as an example of how difficult it was to work with Apple. No pics, no specs, just that PowerComputing has designed one in an obscure MacWorld article. Apple never licensed core Powerbook software as they wanted to be the exclusive player in the notebook field and forbid PowerComputing to release its note book. [b]PowerComputing 60 Mhz bus Tsunami[/b] All the high end Macs during the cloning era used the motherboard design called Tsunami. The machines that used it included the PM 9500, PM 9600, Umax S900, and the PowerTowerPro line. The basic design featured up to 12 RAM slots, 6 PCI slots and had a maximum bus speed of 50 Mhz. To further increase the performance of the PowerTowerPro line, engineers looked at increasing its bus speed. Going from 50 Mhz to 60 Mhz was a minor jump in bus speed but was a big enough deal for Apple not to certify that motherboard. [b]PowerComputing 603e/300[/b] A mystery machine with a 603e processor running at 300 Mhz has plenty of relatives but remained buried in the closet. The Catalyst motherboard design had a 60 Mhz bus which this prototype used. The system tested by MacWorld simply mutated into the PowerCenterPro line featuring the 604e processor running at lower clock speeds. In comparison, the lowend PowerBase systems had 603e processors but used a rather slow 40 Mhz bus speed. [b]PowerWave Nubus/PCI hybrid 'Stargate'[/b] Apple never planned on a smooth transition from Nubus to PCI. The first licensed clone maker had a system with both types of slots to help protect the investment in expensive Nubus cards. The key was the PowerWave series of machine. On these systems, the expansion slot are not found directly on the motherboard, but on a riser card. Standard was the 3 PCI riser card the 2 Nubus/2 PCI riser card being a $249 option. The hybrid suffered a few initial delay before being forgotten. The market was just to small and the engineering difficulties kept this piece of hardware out of public reach. Fri, 23 Jan 2004 18:58:09 -0800 http://www.applefritter.com/node/399 For starters, its best to define vaporware. Quite frankly, vaporware is any announced product or technology that never makes it to market. There are tons of items that fit into the vaporware cloud over the computer industry. Daystar Turbo 060/Image 060 A featured news item in the May 1994 issue of Macworld, this pair of products were to offer near PowerMac speeds without the need to update your software library. As the name suggests, the up-grade cards use the Motorola 68060 chip. Apple bypassed the 68060 in favor of the PowerPC line. This CPU is the pinnacle of the 68K line of processors - a full super scaler design capable of executing three instructions per clock cycle. In English, it was pretty fast for its intended market. Another interesting detail is that the 68060 instruction set is not 100% compatible with the older 68040. It is believed that the Turbo 060 had an emulator built into the cards ROM for handling the troublesome instructions. Such an emulator is available from Motorola's website. Daystar had several versions of the cards planned, mainly to accommodate the various PDS slots found in the Mac II and Quadra lines. The initial wave of Turbo 060 cards were aimed at Macs with the Quadra style PDS slot. The high end Turbo 060 would have had a 66 Mhz 68060, some L2 cache, and four 72 pin RAM slots on the card itself. A cheaper 50 Mhz version was mentioned but without any other details. The Image 060 was to be a Turbo 060 with the optional twin DSP daughter card. The DSPs of course further accelerate certain Photoshop functions. While no pictures of the Turbo 060 are floating around on the net, the specs hint of a layout similar to that of the early PowerPro 601 upgrade cards. The reason the Turbo 060 didn't make it to market is simple - Apple wouldn't let them. The performance of the Turbo 060 rivaled that of the low end PowerMacs even while running PPC native software. Apple had must of the OS running in emulation, hindering the low end PowerMacs further. What Apple wanted was a smooth transition to the PPC line and the Turbo 060 was a threat to Apple's short term plans. Without a license for Apple ROMs on the card, the Turbo 060 was left setting in the laboratory and on a few obscure press releases. Thu, 12 Feb 2004 10:02:05 -0800 http://www.applefritter.com/node/345 [center][h3]16-Bit Sound System for the Macintosh[/h3][/center] [center][image:341][/center] From the box, dated 1992: "The Pro AudioSpectrum 16 Mac is the state-of-the-art in audio enhancement for your Apple Macintosh computer. Available in LC and NuBus configurations, this audio adapter delivers 16-bit stereo digital audio recording and playback to 44.1 KHz, built-in MIDI in and out ports, and a 4-channel software controllable input mixer. These features coupled with it's CD quality sound - and bundled software makes the Pro AudioSpectrum 16 the most comprehensive, state-of-the-art sound solution available today. Hear your Mac like never before!" [b]Technical specifications:[/b] Signal Quality (1V RMS Reference) [*]Sample Rate (16bit PCM) [list] [*]2-44.1 KHz Programmable Frequency (step size < 1 KHz) [/list] [*]Dynamic Range and Signal to Noise [list] [*]Synthesized Mixed Audio: -75 dB [*]Sampled Audio (PCM): -85dB [/list] [*]Frequency Response [list] [*]20Hz-20KHz (3/-3dB) [/list] [*]Filtering [list] [*]4Hz-20KHz Programmable [/list] [*]Volume Control (Programmable in steps with adjustment of left and right channels) [list] [*]Master Volume: 0 to 80dB (2dB/step) [*]Mixer: +3 to 12dB [/list] [*]Audio Mixing [list] [*]4-input stereo audio mixing with independent left/right channel control [/list] [*]System Inputs/Outputs [list] [*]4-line-level inputs [*]Microphone input [*]Dual RCA line-level outputs [*]Mini stereo headphone output [*]MIDI (1 input, 1 output) [*]Standard joystick, 15-pin [/list] [*]Volume Control [list] [*]Master Volume: 0 to 62 dB (1dB/step) [*]Input Mixer +1 to 60 dB (2dB/step) [/list] [center][image:344][/center] The 15 pin port at the top is for connection of a PC joystick. The PAS16 drivers allowed the joystick to emulate the mouse. There are three connectors arranged triangularly. The black one at the top is for headphones. The other two are stereo out. To the right of these is MIDI in and MIDI out. Below these are two row of four connectors. These are four channels of stereo in. In the bottom right is the microphone in. [center][image:340][/center] The board. [center][image:343][/center] The PAS16 shipped with the expensive SoundEdit Pro software and Trax, MIDI software. [center][image:342][/center] Oddly, the PAS 16 also included a set of inexpensive headphones. Wed, 09 Jun 2004 06:46:15 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/339 [center][image:337][/center] The Apple PowerCD was introduced in 1993 by the Apple's Mac Like Things group. It could act as a stand alone music CD player, a SCSI CD-ROM drive, or a Kodak PhotoCD drive. PhotoCD's never caught on, but with the PowerCD's portability and battery power it became popular as a CD-ROM drive for Powerbooks. Like all of Apple's products of the time, the quality is superb. The drive has a very substantial feel (i.e. it's heavy) and the display is even backlit. [center][image:334][/center] [center][image:338][/center] [center][image:336][/center] Wed, 09 Jun 2004 06:47:38 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/314 [center][image:305][/center] Here it is, the Cassie keyboard hooked up to a Mac 512k via the interface box. And it works fine, too. I played a game of Dark Castle with it. Wed, 09 Jun 2004 06:48:43 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/313 [center][image:303] [image:309][/center] This interface box is an adapter which allows the Cassie keyboard to be used with a Mac 128k - Plus. [center][image:302][/center] [center][image:310][/center] Here's a rather poor schematic of the board. [email=frustum@pacbell.net]Jim Battle[/email] provided some additional notes: [list][*]I know nothing about this device, but looking at the schematic, I can guarantee you [U1] is some type of microcontroller. I can figure this out from a few things on the schematic. [*]Crystal oscillator X1 and the two capacitors (although only C1 is labelled). This is an oscillator tank circuit that is very common. [*]If it really was an eprom, the unused address lines would not be left floating -- they would need to be pulled high or low. as it is, I'm sure it is just extra I/O port pins from the microcontroller. [*]The thing labelled "C3" isn't a resistor, as shown on the schematic. I believe it is a diode. This is to protect the processor in case somebody applies power backwards on the device somehow. [*]The wire that connects to the C3/C2/C1/J1/J2/U1 is undoubtedly the ground (0 V) wire. [*]The wire that goes to the other side of "C3"/J2/U1 is the power, probably 5V.[/list] Wed, 09 Jun 2004 06:49:49 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/312 [center][image:295][/center] Note the lack of a power key on the keyboard. [center][image:301][/center] This keyboard's serial number is 1012. I'm told Apple starts their numbering at 1000. [image:306] [image:311] [image:300] [image:298] [image:297] [image:299] [image:307] [image:308] Wed, 09 Jun 2004 07:07:43 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/294 [center][image:292][/center] [center][h2]Frameless Prototype Keyboard[/h2][/center] "Steve said that we were all too busy doing ordinary things to think about doing anything great," recalls Ken Campbell, "But that was going to change... Steve not only wanted our design to be the best in the computer industry; he also wanted Apple to in the 1980s what Olivetti had been in the 1970s, an undisputed leader in industrial design." [i]From [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1888001259/theapplefritter/]AppleDesign[/url], by Paul Kunkel.[/i] And thus the SnowWhite Project, a contest to choose a design team that would work with Apple's to produce the company's new industrial design was born. There were two candidates for the job: BIB Design, and frogdesign headed by Hartmut Esslinger. In November, 1982, Jerry Manock, Apple's Industrial Design Manager, met with the frogdesign team to review their desktop concepts. While there, he and the frogdesign team designed a thin, lightweight keyboard that didn't even have a frame around the keys. Code named "Cassie", the keyboard became one of Frogdesign's signature concepts when they presented their work to Apple for review. In the end, frogdesign was chosen to design Apple's future products. A keyboard based on the Cassie design was planned for use with the Apple IIgs, however, it was found that customers would not accept a keyboard that was so thin and lightweight. The keyboard that shipped with the IIgs was given a small frame and a power key to make it seem more substantial. [hr] Prototypes can be divided into two categories: those of products that shipped, and those of products that didn't. Prototypes of shipping products are only mildly interesting, especially if they're of the product in a late stage of design. A prototype Powerbook G3 is, for example, little more than a Powerbook G3 without the bugs worked out. Things get a lot more exciting when the prototyped product never ships.We are given a look at what could have been. Cassie is pure SnowWhite. What computers would it look good with? Perhaps a Mac SE or Apple IIgs, but even those strike me as a little too sharp-edged and hard. A computer to go with Cassie would have to be soft, like Esslinger's other designs of the period (see pages 96 to 100 of [i]AppleDesign[/i]). The perfect accompaniment for Cassie would have been Babymac: [center][image:293][/center] Strikingly reminiscent of the Apple Monitor IIc, Babymac, like Cassie, is a pure SnowWhite design and the two go perfectly together, giving us an image of what Apple's industrial design might have been like if they had gone "pure SnowWhite." [h4]Michael R. Clark provides more details:[/h4] "I joined Apple in May 1984 and Cassie was my second or third project, probably around '85 or '86. I was an electrical engineer in the Development Engineering group at APD (Apple Peripherals Division) when Cassie was developed. I designed the internal electronics and the interface box for the Cassie! In the close up of the insides of the interface box, I can even make out my writing on the label on the chip! The chip is the 8748, the EPROM version of 8048 microcontroller. The Cassie protocol was completely different than both the 128K Mac and ADB. It was very complex and ADB actually simplified it. "There was a mechanical prototype of the mouse, but I don't think we ever made a functional one. There is no way to make it work through the 128K keyboard protocol. BTW, the model was to my knowledge the first and only mouse with an 'asshole' instead of a tail! "The thing that I recall kept Cassie from shipping was the investment in tooling required to bring it into production. "I went on to design the MacPlus Keyboard, and Apple Desktop Bus. My first and the first implementation of ADB was the keyboard and mouse for the Mac II, Mac SE and Apple IIgs. I also did a transceiver chip on the mother board of the Macs. "The first prototypes of ADB did use stereo jacks, but we could not get a manufacture to guarantee that the resistance of the plug would not go up when things just stayed connected. This happens all the time with your walkman. But when you hear all that static, you pull the plug out, put it back in and therefore clean it up. You could not "hear" this happening in a keyboard. "So the decision was made to use the MiniDin 4. We could have gotten away with a MiniDin 3, but AppleTalk was already using it. (You know that power on key on your Macintosh Keyboard? It shorts the fourth pin to ground triggering a circuit inside the Mac to turn it on!)" After leaving the Development Engineering group at APD, Michael ended up in the Apple Research Group, ATG, and was laid off when the group was dismantled a few years ago. He currently does consulting and is getting involved in a couple of potential start ups. [i]Mike - Your email bounces. If you're still around, email me. - Tom[/i] [list][*][url=http://www.applefritter.com/sandbox/?q=node/view/312]More photos of Cassie.[/url] [*][url=http://www.applefritter.com/sandbox/?q=node/view/313]Pictures and a schematic of the interface box.[/url] [*][url=http://www.applefritter.com/sandbox/?q=node/view/314]Cassie and the interface box, hooked up to a Mac 512k.[/url][/list] For further information on the SnowWhite project, prototypes, and Apple history in general, I would strongly advise reading [i]AppleDesign[/i]. Note: I also have another keyboard identical to this one, but serial #1032, and Michael has one as well, making three known Cassie keyboards. Wed, 09 Jun 2004 06:55:46 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/176 [image:177] [center][i][url=http://www.sigma957.org/datagraph.html]Michael Rothe[/url] has designed a serial interface and is working on software to allow the Datagraph to work with modern computers.[/i][/center] The Seiko Datagraph UC-2001 was marketed in 1985 as a PDA-on-the wrist. At $500, it doesn't appear sales were brisk, but the coolness factor remains. The Datagraph has 2K of memory, usable for storage of text. It communicats with the UC-2301 interface via a wireless connection. The UC-2301, in turn, communicates with the Apple II via the game port (internal). The Apple II software that controls it, Time Trax II can also serve as a stand-alone scheduling program. The user enters all his appointments, etc. into Time Trax, then synchronizes with the watch. Starting with the current day (unless you specify otherwise) the watch will transfer all appointments from that day forward until the watch's memory is full. The appointments are stored on the watch as plain scrollable text. Likewise, plain text can be stored on the watch in the "memo pad". In the Time Trax software, simply choose a Memo Pad, enter the text you want to store, then transmit it to the watch. The UC-2001 can store two memos of 1K each, a schedule of 2K, or one memo and one schedule of variable sizes. Years after 1999 are not supported by Time Trax, though I'm looking for a work-around. Right now just use the year 1974 instead of 2002 - the days match. The watch itself doesn't take the year into account at all, so the issue is only with the Time Trax software. I have successfully used Time Trax II and the Datagraph with both the IIe and IIgs. The IIgs must be set to "Normal" speed in the Control Panel. The II+ will likely be compatible, though I have not yet tried it. The Time Trax software is ProDOS based, not copy protected and has no difficulty with hard drives. The interface was made by Creative Peripherals Unlimited. I believe CPU sold the same box, without the watch interface, to Applied Engineering as the IIc System Clock. If this is so, getting the watch to work with the IIc is likely just a matter of rewiring the cable. A IIc version of the UC-2301 was avaiable and the Time Trax software allows the user to choose whether the game or serial port is used. The watch's interface looks like it has to be pretty simplistic and I'm lookin for ways to get it working with other systems. If you buy one and figure out anything interesting, let me know. A few sample screen picts:[table][tr][td]Watch:[/td][td][image:165,middle][/td][/tr] [tr][td]Alarm:[/td][td][image:162,middle][/td][/tr] [tr][td]Stopwatch:[/td][td][image:173,middle][/td][/tr] [tr][td]Memo A:[/td][td][image:170,middle][/td][/tr] [tr][td]Memos:[/td][td][image:164,middle] [image:166,middle][/td][/tr][/table] Screenshots of the Time Trax II software are available here. [center][image:163][/center] [center][image:167][/center] Looking at the pinouts: The UC-2301 uses a 1/8" audio connector: [pre](tip end) -|=|= (cable end) 1 2 3[/pre] The gameport connector looks like this: [pre] /--------+ +5 V | 1 16 | Unused PB0 | 2 15 | AN0 PB1 | 3 14 | AN1 PB2 | 4 13 | AN2 Strobe | 5 12 | AN3 GC0 | 6 11 | GC3 GC2 | 7 10 | GC1 Gnd | 8 9 | Unused +--------+ [/pre] The two ends are connected as follows: [pre] UC-2301 Gameport 1 1,4 +5V, PB2 2 14 AN1 3 8 Ground [/pre] The Apple IIc serial port is: [pre] 5. .1 4. .2 1. [/pre] 1 - DTR - Data Terminal Ready Output 2 - TD - Transmit Data Output 3 - GND - Ground 4 - RD - Read Data Input 5 - DSR - Data Set Ready Input I have taken high resolution scans of the UC-2301 circuit board: [thumb:169] [thumb:168] Here's a closeup of the watches. The one on showing the time is used. The one with the blank screen is brand new, just out of the plastic slip. The display's contrast is adjustable. [image:175] Wed, 09 Jun 2004 06:58:56 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/149 [center][image:145][/center] The KoalaPad, designed by [url=http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwitr/interviews/thornburg.htm]Dr. David Thornburg[/url], was immensely popular in schools and the home due to its low price and ease of use. While other drawing tablets used an intricate grid of wires to read the pens position on the tablet, and relied on special controller cards and software, the KoalaPad simulated a joystick and even used the Apple II's joystick connector. This made the tablet very inexpensive and workable with any software that used the joystick. [center][image:147][/center] The pen used by the KoalaPad is just a stick of plastic. A finger or any other material can be just as effective. [center][image:143][/center] The tablet is controlled by a very simple circuit with little more than just one IC and a couple of resistors. [center][image:141][/center] [center][image:142][/center] [center][image:148][/center] The KoalaPad can be tested as any joystick can. In the upper left corner, the X,Y output should be aproximately 0,0, in the lower right corner 255,255, and in the center about 130,130. The pads become less accurate with age. [center][image:139][/center] The tablet itself, it appears, was made by AMP. [center][image:146][/center] [center][image:144][/center] [center][image:140][/center] Wed, 09 Jun 2004 07:00:19 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/138 [center][image:134][/center] The Passport Designs Soundchaser Computer Music System is a package that includes a Mountain Computer music synthesizer and the Soundchaser piano-style keyboard for music input. The system hardware and software allows four-track recording and sound manipulation, using the Apple II as a controller. The keyboard case is 29" long and is made of solid wood. The keys are full-sized. A ribbon cable connects the keyboard to its interface board, which goes in slot 7. Dave Pratt - the designer of the ComputerEyes digitizer boards - purchased this particular system new in the early 1980s and used it for his home computer music hobby. It cost over $1,200 new. [center][image:135][/center] The music synthesizer is a set of two circuit boards (using slots 4 and 5). It's a sixteen oscillator (voice) digital synthesizer, with software to control it. A light pen is included that interacts with the software to manipulate music on the computer screen. A stereo output is provided. [center][image:136][/center] [center][image:137][/center] Wed, 09 Jun 2004 07:03:38 -0700 http://www.applefritter.com/node/133 [center][image:131][/center] The Amdek Amdisk I was one of a number of floppy drives that battled it out to replace the 5 1/4" drives. This drive is really nice because it can use a standard Disk II interface card and holds exactly the same amount of data as an 5 1/4" disk. From the computer's perspective, the Amdisk can't be told apart from an ordinary Disk II drive. Just like a 5.25" disk in a Disk II drive, the 3" disk has to be physically removed and flipped over for the computer to read the other side. [center][image:130][/center] I have two boxes of these disks, so I've actually been toying with the idea of [i]using[/i] them! [center][image:129][/center] The Amdisk is 3 1/8 inches by 3 15/16 inches. An ordinary 3 1/2" floppy disk is 3 1/2 inches by 3 9/16 inches. [center][image:132][/center] Here the Amdisk is connected to an Apple IIe via a Disk II card. The computer is in the process of booting Copy II+ off the Amdisk. [i]Donated by Dale Kline.[/i] Wed, 09 Jun 2004 07:04:36 -0700