[NTLK] Who doesn’t love a little Newton minutia?

[Grant Hutchinson]

I’ve been doing a few little updates to the Newton FAQ this week, mostly regarding the hardware specifications table. For one, I decided to separate the CPU type and processor speed into their own columns. While doing this, I decided to double check all of the speeds for both the ARM and StrongARM processors used in the various Newton devices.

Well, did I ever find an interesting bit of minutia ...

The processor speed of the StrongARM 110 used in the MessagePad 2000, MessagePad 2100, and several third-party devices was generally agree upon to be roughly 162 MHz. However, going back through various specification sheets, archived websites, and other documents, that speed was reported to be all over the place.

So, being a persnickety completionist, I added a footnote to the specifications table to document and explain what I found.

The footnote reads:

“Most official Apple specification sheets including Apple Service Source (Late 1997), as well as Wikipedia, state the speed of the StrongARM processor as 162 MHz. Other sources, including the Newton Technology Journal (January 1997) and some Apple specification sheets state the speed as 161.9 MHz, possibly indicating that the number was later rounded up for marketing purposes. Another edition of Apple Service Source (Early 1997) erroneously states the speed as 167.9 MHz, which is likely a typo. An archived version of the Newton Inc. website states the processor speed for the MessagePad 2000 as 160 MHz, which also feels like a typo. For the record, Frank Gründel’s NewtTest reports the processor speed of a MessagePad 2100 as 162.2 MHz.”

<https://newtonfaq.com/newton-faq-hardware.html#IIA1e-11>

Whew.

g.


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Grant Hutchinson
NewtonTalk List Dad & Web Custodian