SoylentNews

owl [soylentnews.org] writes:

There’s many legends in computer history. But a legend is nothing but a story. Someone tells it, someone else remembers it, and everybody passes it on. And the Apple IIGS has a legend all its own. Here, in Userlandia, we’re going to bust some megahertz myths.

I love the Apple IIGS. It’s the fabulous home computer you’d have to be crazy to hate. One look at its spec sheet will tell you why. The Ensoniq synthesizer chip brings 32 voices of polyphonic power to the desktop. Apple’s Video Graphics Controller paints beautiful on-screen pictures from a palette of thousands of colors. Seven slots and seven ports provide plenty of potential for powerful peripherals. These ingredients make a great recipe for a succulent home computer. But you can’t forget the most central ingredient: the central processing unit. It’s a GTE 65SC816 clocked at 2.8 MHz—about 2.72 times faster than an Apple IIe. When the IIGS launched in September 1986 its contemporaries were systems like the Atari 1040ST, the Commodore Amiga 1000, and of course Apple’s own Macintosh Plus. These machines all sported a Motorola 68000 clocked between 7 and 8 MHz. If I know anything about which number is bigger than the other number, I’d say that Motorola’s CPU is faster.

Original Submission