Apple Computer Inc has always indicated that it saw Acorn Computers Plc’s Acorn RISC Machine as a controller rather than a CPU, but Le Monde Informatique expects a notepad version of the Macintosh built around the RISC, now the property of Acorn’s Advanced RISC Machines Ltd joint venture with VLSI Technology Inc and Apple, to be among at least 11 new Macintoshes it expects this year – and reckons it could appear as soon as this month. The Macintosh Tablet is expected to use the same LCD display as the PowerBook 100, putting up 640 by 400 pixels, and to have a magnetic stylus, 2Mb to 8Mb, LocalTalk ports and two slots for integrated circuit memory cards. The paper expects the operating system to be derived from System 7 with handwriting recognition extensions, either the software licensed from the Russian enterprise, Paragraph, or PenPoint from Go Corp, the latter at least as an option. A separate remote communications box and a box for interfacing the machine to a desktop Mac for dumping files and data are also expected. The paper also expects a new PowerBook based on the 68030 that will offer the best power-to-size ratio yet, measuring 10 by 8.3 by 1 and weighing about 4 lbs. It is expected to have 2Mb to 16Mb memory, 9.5 640 by 400 backlit LCD display with 16 grey scales. A disk drive will be an external option, and the trackball will be replaced by an IsoPoint fingertip controller. It is expected to come with an optional desktop docking station with two NuBus slots, hard disk and SCSI and EtherTalk interfaces, plus a video interface for a full screen. That’s expected around August time, accompanied by two high end evolutions of the PowerBook 170, using faster versions of the 68030 than the present 25MHz, one with supertwist nematic mono LCD, the other with 256 colour thin film transistor active matrix display. The paper also looks for a colour Class ic IIc with most of the features of the Macintosh II at around $2,000 in Oct ober; it expects the 68020 of the LC to be replaced by a 16MHz 68030 and go to 16Mb rather than 10Mb, and a 25MHz 68030-based IIsi at the price of the present si. Faster CPUs for the Quadras, and a Quadra 500 with 25MHz 68040 complete the crystal ball gazing.
