Hardware
March 1996 issue
(c)1995 Brian Fouhse. All rights reserved excepting that this file may be
copied for non-commercial purposes, unchanged. No warranties apply. I am
just a user volunteering my observations.

Some interesting tidbits of information for you this month.
Highlights:	

Quicken demo
More colour printers
New Newton
Pippin
- more acronyms

1. Apologies - I signed up to the Internet this past month and have spent
most of my spare time exploring. Consequently, there has been less time
available for this article, sorry about that.

2. As volunteered last month, I am offering an introductory demonstration
of Quicken at the meeting this month. I have used it for 16 months now. It
does most of what I want. A few things are odd or not to my liking, but
overall, I can see why it is rated so highly.

3. A few more details have leaked out regarding the next batch of
PowerMacs. They may be based on the 604e chip. The speed of these chips
goes up to about 250 MHz. In advertising circles, or some consumers minds,
the faster machines have faster processor speeds. This is NOT the only
criteria to consider, but it seems to carry the most weight in some
purchase decisions.

4. More colour StyleWriter printers are now available from Apple. A 1500
model and a 2500 model. The 2500 model is similar to the current 2400
model, but can print at 720 dpi in colour. The 1500 prints 720 dpi in black
and white, but only 360 dpi in colour.

5.	Another Newton has been introduced, the MessagePad 130. The difference
from the 120 is more memory (2.5 Meg total) and a back lit screen. I was
also pleasantly surprised to find an 18 page section on the Newton in the
April issue of MacWorld. If you are interested in this most portable Apple
product, you might want to check it out. MacUser also has a little quiz in
their April issue to help you determine if you're a likely candidate for a
Newton. They also touch on the other portable organizers on the market.

6.	The MacUser cover article for April has the Pippin shown. In case you've
missed this, a Pippin is a stripped down PowerMac made in Japan for the
gaming crowd (Sega, Nintendo, Sony Playstation, etc.) Some thoughts for the
Pippin include using it as an Internet access device, or a $500 home
computer. Most games developed for the Pippin will work on the Mac, most
Mac games can be modified to work on the Pippin. The major rewrite
necessary to convert a program is for the lack of a keyboard, and no hard
disk access.

The operating system will be on every CD-ROM that is inserted into the
machine, in this way the ROMs will be much smaller. An external disk drive
and/or floppy disk is available that mounts underneath the unit.
Suggestions have been made that the CD could be replaced by the newer DVD
format (see last months issue.) This might encourage consumers to buy a
Pippin is for the new CD, and add it to their stereo component setup.

Some more acronyms for your consideration: (those stupid 3 letter or so
abbreviations that replace the phrases that are too long to say)

PPCP -	PowerPC platform (new name for CHRP)
CHRP -	Common hardware reference platform, original name to the
specifications meant to standardize on a PowerPC computer that any company
could manufacture or assemble, that would be guaranteed to run brand XX
software.
LERP -	Low end reference platform, a CHRP or PPCP machine without the
complete set of multi-operating system goodies. It would likely only run
the Mac operating system. The feasibility of introducing any computers
based on this model is still undetermined. It may help or hinder acceptance
of the PPCP. The big advantage it has will be low cost. Clone manufacturers
could use it as well.
dpi -	dots per inch, printing term primarily. Used to indicate the
resolution of the final output. The original ImageWriter printed at 144
dpi, the LaserWriter when introduced gave us 300 dpi and the desktop
publishing phenomenon. Today 360 dpi inkjet printers are common, as are
1200 dpi lasers. A Linotronic imagesetter used by book publishers and some
high end Mac people outputs 2400 dpi. The quality of the final product is
much enhanced by a better printer. Keep in mind, as the density of print
goes up, so too does the memory requirements. A one inch square detail at
144 dpi needs 144x144 bits of memory (2.5 K.) The same detail at 300 dpi
needs 300x300 bits of memory (11.2 K) At 2400 dpi this represents 720 K.
This is one reason that Postscript printers (the favourite of Mac
publishers) can often have as much memory as their owners computers. Laser
printers in the IBM world (dominated by Hewlett Packard) use a much less
sophisticated print routine. One and a half meg of memory is big in this
market, Mac users can have 16 Meg and a dedicated hard disk n their
printers.  (As a point of reference, most Mac screens are 72 dpi.)

Other stuff
If you notice any errors or omissions in my presentation, please let me
know. I am also open to any and all suggestions for format or content.
Till next month,
Brian Fouhse

now available at 2 email addresses to serve you better:
75771.1445@compuserve.com
and
bfouhse@cableregina.com