🚀 go-pugleaf

>I called SuperMac again and asked them about the XP and the software
>changes.  They claim that the XP upgrade will be out by mid-Oct and that
>the software *is* out of beta (by the way Peter, I have the same version
>of the Initializer as you, but my Spooler is 3.0d.  I have version .81Beta
>of the Backup program) and, besides being included with all new drives,
>can be obtained at dealers by the end of the week (Oct 3rd).

Tom Riely (sp?) came to the BMUG meeting last Thursday and showed the
various SuperMac products, including the XP upgrade.  He also answered
questions, handed out the new versions of everything, and told me,
"no, whatever anyone else at SuperMac said, don't post the spooler or
backup software YET".  The XP upgrade is a hardware mod that fits over
the ROMS.  For those with 512Ke macs, there will be a DataPort/XP announced
sometime this month or next.  The price of the XP upgrade will be $100
initially (thorugh Oct. 15th), and then it will jump to $200 (retail).
I'd order mine now, even though they probably won't ship 'till right
around the 15th.

>Incidentally, the people I talked to at SuperMac claim that the XP upgrade
>does *not* require drive reformating or even hardware mods to the
>DataFrame itself--just the ROM board inside the Mac.  It should make
>the Mac about two times as fast during Mac<->HD exchanges.

Tom also cautioned that the XP upgrade doesn't mean a 100% increase
in speed across the board.  Programs that need their resources loaded
into memory require the processor to spend time allocating memory and
resource space during the loading process--during this time the hard
drive is waiting for the processor!  Thus the XP upgrade won't speed
up the process of loading programs much.  BUT... you should get
basically all of the 100% increase when working with simple text stuff
(like MacWrite files, .h files, etc. etc.).

Peter
-----						  
Peter "Arrgh" Korn		           I know lots of honorary jews!  Why,
korn@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU			  some of my very best friends
{decvax,dual,hplabs,sdcsvax,ulysses}!ucbvax!korn            are honorary jews!