Developer-Ignorant questions about MacWorks+II

[bmwcyclist]

I have worked in IS and IT for many decades, but I am NOT a developer* so complex programs and especially operating system work is completely smoke and mirrors from my perspective. With that in mind, I hope you guys don't mind some naive speculative questions:

Everyone, including myself, is wildly excited about the new possibilities of new programs and OS features being created thanks to the work on the Lisa source code. However, what about MacWorks?

1. Could the Mac Plus ROM image that MacWorks loads be replaced with say Mac II ROM?

2. Could MacWorks be remade to work on 68020 or 68030 processors?






*(I have written countless scripts and did some HTML back in the day but my friends that are legit developers tell me that if I don't compile I'm not a developer! )

[sigma7]

1. Could the Mac Plus ROM image that MacWorks loads be replaced with say Mac II ROM?
2. Could MacWorks be remade to work on 68020 or 68030 processors?

Yes, those are technically possible, but like so many Lisa enhancements, they are not economically viable as a commercial endeavour. It would take a tremendous donation in time and effort, such as Ray made to develop LisaEm.

Depending on why you'd consider that route (instead of using a real MacII, Quadra, or G3/G4): there were some 68020 (and possibly 68030 too) accelerator boards for the Mac Plus; you might be able to find one that can be made to work in a Lisa with less investment.

I have some hope/expectation that the Lisa in an FPGA might well outperform a real 68020.

[bmwcyclist]

Depending on why you'd consider that route (instead of using a real MacII, Quadra, or G3/G4): there were some 68020 (and possibly 68030 too) accelerator boards for the Mac Plus; you might be able to find one that can be made to work in a Lisa with less investment.

I have some hope/expectation that Lisa in an FPGA might well outperform a real 68020.

Whoa! I never even thought of using a Mac Plus accelerator!

What would you speculate "made to work" might entail?

The FPGA project is fantastic also, but I hope that project leads to new hardware that can be installed in the lisa case perhaps or a reborn modern Lisa?

[sigma7]

a Mac Plus accelerator!

What would you speculate "made to work" might entail?

After prototyping an adapter to install a specific design, I can imagine substantial challenges in signal timing differences from the Mac Plus, variations in 680x0 exception frames interfering with the self-test requiring a modified CPU ROM, configuration software compatibility issues, and possibly unexpected show-stoppers that only become apparent after you solve the initial problems.

However, it isn't impossible that a Mac Plus accelerator would "just work", so I think it is worth trying any that physically fit with minimal effort. Try it and see.