Forum Rules - Formats - Spotlights  -  Home - Library - New Additions

What do you think an "Apple IV" would be like?

Nathan22587Nathan22587
edited February 2017 in Software
1995:
5 mb RAM
120MHz processor
internal hard drive (160mb)
fully 32-bit, hardware & operating system
16-bit sound chip
GS/OS system 7, which would look like Mac OS 7.6
Full compatibility with Macintosh & older Apple II applications
65,536 colors, all colors visible
Multiuser OS (?)
Internet (basic html only)

Comments

  • dosboxdosbox
    Overpriced, and underpowered and that's if you consider how they released the Apple IIgs in 1986 that was weaker than the macs at the time. Then again, the Apple IIgs was designed with backwards compatibility in mind.

    At the same time though, they went with Power PC in the 90s and that was faster than x86 CPUs at the time.
  • eli573eli573
    One word, two possibilities.
    1. Lisa
    2. Macintosh
    Oh, also, the internet in 1995 was a different animal than modern internet. A computer of 1995 wasn't limited to basic HTML, it was limited to the technology of a website from around 1995. A web page from back then didn't consist of a massive Shockwave Flash animation, or 2TB advertisements. A modern web page viewed in Internet Explorer 3, for example, would just be viewed as basic HTML. A website from 1995 viewed in Internet Explorer 3 would look normal, with much more than basic HTML.
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    Given how the Apple III was intended to a business computer, it would stand to reason that a direct descended (which the IIgs is not) would also be along that direction.

    But the Apple III was such a design disaster, it is really hard to imagine what a "IV" might have been like.

    I mean right off the bat the III was supposed to use twiggies, but wound up using a slightly modified (and still single sided) Apple II style drive. It STILL used a 6502, but yet only offered limited backwards compatiblity in an "Apple II+" mode (No IIe support).

    So practically speaking the III added very little that anyone really wanted over the II and made it clear how hard making design changes while maintaining compatiblity with the II really was.

    I think a "IV" would have only existed if they had made a larger jump between the II and the III. But that jump eventually came in the form of the Lisa/Mac.

    If Jobs hadn't been so hell bent on making something completely different, we might have instead wound up with a much more expandable M68k based computer (but with a more meager default config unlike the Lisa) with some sort of Apple II compatibility co-processor. That might qualify as your "IV".
  • BigCJBigCJ
    SomeGuy wrote:
    But the Apple III was such a design disaster, it is really hard to imagine what a "IV" might have been like.
    Was that the retarded one that didn't even have a cooling fan?
  • buriccoburicco
    BigCJ wrote:
    SomeGuy wrote:
    But the Apple III was such a design disaster, it is really hard to imagine what a "IV" might have been like.
    Was that the retarded one that didn't even have a cooling fan?
    Yep.
Sign In or Register to comment.