Message-Id: <mailto:199506081814.LAA60945@listserv.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Thu, 8 Jun 1995 12:13:58 -0600 From: Lynn Lickteig <mailto:vrc@SPOT.COLORADO.EDU> Subject: Re: Mac/IBM CDROM dilemma To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
>Hi All,
>
>Here at the University of Cape Town Art Library we are investigating
>the purchase of CDROM equipment. The problem is that we need to be
>able to support both Macintosh and DOS/Windows environments because
>we are obtaining CDROMs in both formats.
>
>Macintosh is a fairly new thing for South Africa (except for the
>graphics fundis in the commercial world). I have heard of the
>PowerPC. Does it really support BOTH platforms? Are there any
>inherent problems? Should I rather get a separate CDROM player for
>each format??
>
>I realise this is probably old hat for most of you, but I really do
>need advice please.
>
>Apologies for the crosslisting too.
>
>SOlvej
>
>
>
>
>
>*************************************
>* Solvej Vorster *
>* Librarian-in-Charge *
>* Hiddingh Hall Library *
>* University of Cape Town *
>* Orange Street *
>* CAPE TOWN *
>* 8001 *
>* South Africa *
>* *
>* Tel. : +27 (021) 242340 x 135 *
>* EMail : mailto:solvej@uctlib.uct.ac.za *
>*************************************
Hi,
In response to your message about Power PC's.
Yes, the Power PC can truely become a duel platform machine. Originally it
was emulating the Dos/Windows environment through software and did not work
very well. However, they have come up with a much better solution. Now,
with Power PC (as well as some specific 64K Macs) you can purchase what is
called a Dos card. This card has a 486/(not sure what speed, but it's not
slow) chip directly on the card, as well as room for ram expansion beyond
100 megabytes. The beauty of it is that with the card you can
instantaneously switch between Dos and Mac platforms by simply using a hot
key combination (i.e. command-return). The set up is also very simple.
You must partition your hard drive and dedicate one portion to each
platform (therefore a very large hard drive would be good), as well as
purchase 16 to 32 megabytes of ram beyond the standard 16 in Power PC's
(some for the dos card, and some for the mac processor). But once this is
done, I think it is a very small price to pay for two computers at the same
fingertips (I think the card is only $600-800).
Aaron Howell
Visual Resource Center
College of Architecture and Planning
Universty of Colorado-Boulder
mailto:vrc@spot.colorado.edu
Lynn M. Lickteig
Photographer V, Visual Resource Center
University of Colorado/Boulder
Internet: mailto:lickteig@spot.colorado.edu