6 Jul
2000
6 Jul
'00
3:54 p.m.
I have read something at applefritter that intrigued me: that Apple was
thinking about marketing a system known as the "Johnathon" (Successor the
the Mac, perhaps?). The basic design was very similar to that of an Acorn
RISC PC: You bought the base "module" (What OS that run? Mac OS?) as it was
called, & you could buy additional modules that would allow you to run other
operating systems. Unfortunately, Apple canned this computer because they
thought that everybody would just buy the MS-DOS module.
My question is: Was this the original concept for the Mac II, or is this
something completely diffrent.
____________________________________________________________
David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian.
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/
Computer Collection:
"Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, MPS-801.
"Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II.
"Delorean": TI-99/4A, TI Speech Synthesizer.
"Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable.
"Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3, Disto 512K RAM board.
"Boombox": Sharp PC-7000.
____________________________________________________________
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Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
6 Jul
6 Jul
4:15 p.m.
The way you describe it, it sounds like the joint project
that Apple had with IBM for the PowerPC. The idea was to
develope a "microkernel" operating system, which provided
the first layer of services, and "personality" modules that
would go on top. Presumably, the Apple would have used a
Mac personality, while IBM would have used an OS/2
personality.
Of course, the project never went anywhere. The PowerPC
became the standard Mac with the MacOS, and IBM introduced
its own flop version of the PowerPC, which had a version of
OS/2 that was shelved just as it was supposed to be
released, and was replaced with a version of Windows NT.
Another case of vaporware that went nowhere.
Louis
On Fri, 07 Jul 2000 00:54:04 GMT, David Vohs wrote:
I have read something at applefritter that intrigued
me: that Apple was
thinking about marketing a system known as the "Johnathon" (Successor the
the Mac, perhaps?). The basic design was very similar to that of an Acorn
RISC PC: You bought the base "module" (What OS that run? Mac OS?) as it was
called, & you could buy additional modules that would allow you to run other
operating systems. Unfortunately, Apple canned this computer because they
thought that everybody would just buy the MS-DOS module.
My question is: Was this the original concept for the Mac II, or is this
something completely diffrent.
____________________________________________________________
David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian.
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/
Computer Collection:
"Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, MPS-801.
"Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II.
"Delorean": TI-99/4A, TI Speech Synthesizer.
"Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable.
"Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3, Disto 512K RAM board.
"Boombox": Sharp PC-7000.
____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
5:01 p.m.
What you describe below is written up in a issue of Byte somewhere between
'93-95 timeframe I believe. I've got the magazine still, but it's in
storage. IBM actually had a working version of this, but never released it.
I saw it running on a early Thinkpad with OS/2 and AIX running at the same
time. It was VERY COOL!!! You can also find mention of it in some really
old NetBSD doc's (at least I think that was the BSD varient) as they'd
commited to getting their varient of BSD running on top of the Microkernel.
As for the PPC Version of OS/2, I've got to wonder what happened to all
those systems they built to run it. They had to have lost big bucks on
that. They apparently had an entire Warehouse of them ready to go around
'95. ISTR reading in a Mac Magazine about a 3rd party in Europe that got
MacOS running on them, but Apple wouldn't allow it.
Zane
The way you describe it, it sounds like the joint
project
that Apple had with IBM for the PowerPC. The idea was to
develope a "microkernel" operating system, which provided
the first layer of services, and "personality" modules that
would go on top. Presumably, the Apple would have used a
Mac personality, while IBM would have used an OS/2
personality.
Of course, the project never went anywhere. The PowerPC
became the standard Mac with the MacOS, and IBM introduced
its own flop version of the PowerPC, which had a version of
OS/2 that was shelved just as it was supposed to be
released, and was replaced with a version of Windows NT.
Another case of vaporware that went nowhere.
Louis
5:17 p.m.
As for the PPC Version of OS/2, I've got to wonder
what happened to all
those systems they built to run it. They had to have lost big bucks on
that.
Probably less of a loss than you might think - I would not be suprised if
the systems were stripped down to parts and turned into RS/6000s. Or on
the other hand, the PowerPC people may have taken the design from the
RS/6000 people from the start. Or perhaps the PowerPCs were really
RS/6000s under the covers.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
5:48 p.m.
As for the PPC
Version of OS/2, I've got to wonder what happened to all
those systems they built to run it. They had to have lost big bucks on
that.
Probably less of a loss than you might think - I would not be suprised if
the systems were stripped down to parts and turned into RS/6000s. Or on
the other hand, the PowerPC people may have taken the design from the
RS/6000 people from the start. Or perhaps the PowerPCs were really
RS/6000s under the covers.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
6:12 p.m.
IIRC, AIX wouldn't run on them. I'm pretty
sure they were CHRP boxes. Does
AIX run on CHRP boxes?
I think it will.
For that matter I'm not sure, but they were
probably
about the only CHRP boxes that were built.
Even if the PowerPC boxes were fairly unique (that is, not like an
RS/6000), it would not be a big suprise to find that they were scrapped,
with the parts being put into the RS/6000 line. IBM is very good about
recycling their old parts into new machines - chips, power supplies,
switches, brackets, etc.. In fact, many of the RS/6000-250s I used to
deal with came with little slips of paper saying that the some of the
machines were built from older parts.
As a side note, IBM has been reusing some of their 4997 standard racks in
some newer networking gear. These racks were originally part of S/1
systems, built in the late 1970s/early 1980s.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
7 Jul
7 Jul
3:45 a.m.
IIRC, AIX
wouldn't run on them. I'm pretty sure they were CHRP boxes. Does
AIX run on CHRP boxes?
I think it will.
For that matter I'm not sure, but they were
probably
about the only CHRP boxes that were built.
6 Jul
6 Jul
6:33 p.m.
IIRC, AIX wouldn't run on them. I'm pretty sure they were CHRP boxes.
Does AIX run on CHRP boxes? For that matter I'm not sure, but they were
probably about the only CHRP boxes that were built. Though I'm not
particularly up on non-Mac PPC boxes. I do seem to remember hearing about
boxes that Motorola sold that ran the PPC version of Windows NT.
Zane
Yepper, Zane. In fact, I have one of 'em. Haven't plugged it in to see
what's up, but I have one. Actually came in a skid of computers
from a Mo auction after they closed down a facility.
Fairly plain
beige box with batwings on it.
BTW, and completely OT, but I finally have the Mac/Paris rig up
and running with THREE 1710AV monitors, and it's a thing of
beauty. I also am installing a separate but complementary app on
my 8500 that will use two monitors, both 14" Trini's, for a total of 5
plus the one on the wintel box.
Paul Braun WD9GCO
Cygnus Productions
nerdware_nospam(a)laidbak.com
7:15 p.m.
BTW, and completely OT, but I finally have the
Mac/Paris rig up
and running with THREE 1710AV monitors, and it's a thing of
beauty. I also am installing a separate but complementary app on
my 8500 that will use two monitors, both 14" Trini's, for a total of 5
plus the one on the wintel box.
I'm green with envy Paul! I've still not gotten much past getting the
Darla 24 into my 8500 and loading out Bias Peak and Raygun. I *Still* need
an archival Turntable, and to fix the current loop problem caused by the
Cable TV. Still it works pretty good for reading in Cassettes and cleaning
them up, and for spitting legal MP3's out to Minidisk (if the Cable TV is
unplugged).
My problem is I'm finding it hard to find time to work on any of my computer
projects at home.
Zane
28 Jul
28 Jul
8:08 a.m.
> As for the PPC Version of OS/2, I've got to
wonder what happened to all
> those systems they built to run it. They had to have lost big bucks on
> that.
Probably less of a loss than you might think - I would
not be suprised if
the systems were stripped down to parts and turned into RS/6000s. Or on
the other hand, the PowerPC people may have taken the design from the
RS/6000 people from the start. Or perhaps the PowerPCs were really
RS/6000s under the covers.
Does anybody own a PPC version of OS/2 ?
it may be a great thing to play with.
Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 2.0 am 28./29. April 2001 in Muenchen
http://www.vintage.org/vcfe
http://www.homecomputer.de/vcfe
9:08 a.m.
> As for
the PPC Version of OS/2, I've got to wonder what happened to all
> those systems they built to run it. They had to have lost big bucks on
> that.
Probably less of a loss than you might think - I
would not be suprised if
the systems were stripped down to parts and turned into RS/6000s. Or on
the other hand, the PowerPC people may have taken the design from the
RS/6000 people from the start. Or perhaps the PowerPCs were really
RS/6000s under the covers.
Does anybody own a PPC version of OS/2 ?
it may be a great thing to play with. 
6 Jul
6 Jul
4:59 p.m.
I have in my posession one of the few real Mac Clones....It's called
the Jonathan by Akkord Computer out of Taiwan. It's a real clone with
the exception of the Mac ROMs, the hardware was all original and supposed
to get around a lot of the Apple patents. It's a neat little machine, I
met the Akkord guys back in 1990-91.
From AppleFritter:
"Akkord's Jonathan uses a 68000 housed in a case about the size and shape of
an external HD. It is sold only through European OEMs at a price 30% below
European prices for a Mac Plus and includes a 14" Phillips B&W monitor,
built-in AppleTalk connector, and external and internal SCSI ports. The
company says it plans to enter the U.S. market initially with a $3000 kit
with which purchasers can construct a 12 pound Mac portable by adding a
logic board and the 128k ROMs. This system will be in stores as soon as it
receives FCC certification. A future version of the system will use mac
compatible ROMs that Akkord plans to develop itself.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of David Vohs
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 8:54 PM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Apple Johnathon & Apple Macintosh II: Seperated at birth?
I have read something at applefritter that intrigued me: that Apple was
thinking about marketing a system known as the "Johnathon" (Successor the
the Mac, perhaps?). The basic design was very similar to that of an Acorn
RISC PC: You bought the base "module" (What OS that run? Mac OS?) as it was
called, & you could buy additional modules that would allow you to run other
operating systems. Unfortunately, Apple canned this computer because they
thought that everybody would just buy the MS-DOS module.
My question is: Was this the original concept for the Mac II, or is this
something completely diffrent.
____________________________________________________________
David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian.
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/
Computer Collection:
"Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, MPS-801.
"Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II.
"Delorean": TI-99/4A, TI Speech Synthesizer.
"Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable.
"Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3, Disto 512K RAM board.
"Boombox": Sharp PC-7000.
____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
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11 comments
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participants (9)
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aw288＠osfn.org -
cbajpai＠mediaone.net -
Hans.Franke＠mch20.sbs.de -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
louiss＠gate.net -
nerdware＠laidbak.com -
netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com -
pechter＠pechter.dyndns.org -
spectre＠stockholm.ptloma.edu