2400 G3-Upgrade Project

[Sidney Ho]

Well, after several attempts to catch my key upgrade guy, I finally got
through. The switchboard has gone to full automation so there is little live
voice contact. Not necessarily a good sign if one considers the recent
history of upgrade card builders.

Unfortunately, even though the techs bring up the discussion every week, it
seems that the "B" projects are continually shoved aside for the urgent "A"
projects. So MWSF will take priority (some new announcements being readied)
and the real engineering assessment for the 600-700-800 mhz G3-2400
aftermarket will only take place after that--as a low priority "B" project.
For us long waiting, the cancellation of MW Tokyo and MWNY should mean more
time for these guys to finally get to the engineering review but even that
could be iffy. IMO the longer it drags the less likely it will happen.

Their price target seems realistic and affordable, tailored to the
(achievable) speed. The main technical impediment seems to be lack of
sufficient real estate on the daughter card to effect a 2x bus multiplier
for maximum CPU speed but we'll keep our fingers crossed. They seem more
confident on heat and pin configurations. It seems new generation G3 stuff
runs faster and (comparatively) cooler so we might yet get lucky in that
something really optimum can be shoehorned.

Since Apple is truly being blown out of the water on CPU speeds, a little
longer wait won't hurt upgrade prospects too badly. Apple is back to
artfully shrinking their market but I'll spare everyone that rant as I
consider how much to blow upgrading to OSX or jumping cross-platform with
equally/more powerful crossgrades. Arrgghhhh...

Apologies for not answering direct emails on the upgrade subject but I
remain overloaded with non-Mac things. Best wishes to fellow listers for the
new year, with the fervent wish that 2400 life is further extended. At least
light-medium duty work can remain pleasurable.

Sidney Ho