A draft of a letter that incoming freshmen will receive this summer recommends students purchase a computer that is twice as fast as the one suggested for the Class of 1997.
The Council on Computing will recommend an Apple Macintosh Quadra 605 with a 14-inch color monitor and an extended keyboard as the recommended computer package for 1994-95.
Chemistry Professor John Winn, who chairs the council, said the package costs $1,405, according to current Apple price lists.
Last year, the council recommended the Macintosh LCIII, a low-end computer driven by Motorola's 68LC030 processor. The Quadra 605's 68LC040 processor doubles the speed of LCIIIs in recent tests conducted by MacWorld magazine.
Class of 1996 Vice President Tom Caputo, one of two students who sit on the council, said "we wanted a computer powerful enough to suit the needs of the freshmen for four years."
Winn said the committee tried to keep the cost of the recommended package steady. Last year the suggested package cost $1,423. The final pricing of the package will not be known until Apple finalizes its prices.
Winn said the committee decided the Quadra should be fitted with eight megabytes of RAM -- Random Access Memory, which allows the computer to run programs -- and a 160-megabyte hard drive.
The council has never recommended more than four megabytes of RAM or more than an 80-megabyte hard drive.
Winn said he felt the extra RAM was necessary because "people are running a couple of large programs at a time." He said Apple's soon-to-be-released new system software will also require and take up more memory.
This year is the first time the recommended package includes a color monitor. Last year the council suggested a 12-inch black and white monitor, which Apple has since discontinued.
The 14-inch color monitor is the low-end model; the only black and white monitor Apple currently produces is a full-page display, which Winn said was too expensive.
The Quadra 605 does not contain a floating point processor which speeds up mathematical calculations. Winn said the letter recommends that science or engineering majors might want to consider purchasing the Quadra 610, which is the next step up from the 605 and costs $600 more.
Caputo said the council considered a more powerful computer for science majors but could not justify that recommendation for everyone.
Winn said the group felt the new generation of Apple computers, the PowerPCs, were too expensive and said he saw no "compelling advantage to get a PowerPC right now."
He said he thinks Apple will offer upgrades for the 605 if members of the Class of 1998 want to upgrade at some point during their four years at the College.
According to the council, a majority of incoming students purchase the recommended package.
