DayStar Deliverance  from the depths of  DOS Despair



Author: Stephen J. Kayner

Date: June, 1993

Keywords: speed upgrade hardware review

Text:
A Tale of New Life and Vitality
A DayStar Deliverance From the Depths of DOS Despair 
Last summer, my tired old Mac II was becoming a victim of neglect. I
was using a Mac IIci at work, which made the Mac II seem sluggish.
Gradually, it became too slow to bear. Things got so out of hand, that
I found myself using an IBM clone rather than put up with the
unremitting slowness of that old 16MHz '020. The trusty old Mac needed
a long, deep drink from the Fountain of Youth.
It happened that DayStar was running a special on their 50MHz Universal
PowerCache. If purchased by a deadline (in 1992), DayStar would upgrade
it to the new 33MHz '040 accelerator for only $100. The DayStar
accelerators had been highly recommended, and deemed the most
compatible of the bunch in a 1992 comparative review I had seen. I
picked up the phone and dialed 1-900-FOUNTAIN-OF-YOUTH (or some such
number).
In a mere 7  weeks (back-ordered due to the special) a plain brown box
arrived. It contained the long-awaited PowerCache. Unfortunately, it
did not contain the equally-as-long-awaited adapter. It was a thing of
beauty, however, and I turned it in my hands, dreaming of the speed it
would soon bring to my Mac.
Ten long days later, the adapter arrived. Following the detailed
instructions carefully, I popped out the old 68020 and 68882 chips, and
popped in the PowerCache. Then I held my breath and pressed the startup
key. The familiar chord sounded short and flat, and I was preparing to
do chip-level combat, when the ''Happy-Mac'' appeared. I said to myself
''Ha-ha!''
It worked like a charm. None of my applications rejected it. In fact,
they seemed to exult in the new-found speed. Electrons flew through the
traces of my Mac with such fury, they threatened to break free from the
logic board and become airborne. But of course, they didn't.
The grand-old-Mac has regained Most Favored Computer status, and the
IBM clone sits unemployed, secretly hoping for a Mac disaster.
Now my trusty old Mac IIci at work seems sluggish, and in need of a
long deep drink from the Fountain of Youth. To be continued, no
doubt...

Copyright © june, 1993 by Stephen J. Kayner