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From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.graphics
Subject: Re: i82786 R.I.P. ?
Message-ID: <19889@cup.portal.com>
Date: 26 Jun 89 03:37:21 GMT
References: <1987@ubu.warwick.UUCP> <22199@winchester.mips.COM>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 16

mash@mips.com says:
> Anybody has a choice, whose extrema are:
> 	a) Make a very early choice, hoping to get ahead of the competition,
> 		taking the risks that the parts may not be the long-term
> 		winners, or even, may be withdrawn from the market,
> 		which happens, even sometimes from large companies.
> 		Not every part described in the trade press is actually built.
> 	b) Make a very late choice, where the winners are obvious,
> 		but there is no technology advantage over the competition.

There's also alternative c):
        c) Choose a processor which doesn't quite make it, but isn't a total
                loser.  The marketing department of your CPU vendor then
                re-targets it to the laser-printer market.  Let's see, which
                chips have been touted as the "ideal" laser printer controller:
                32000, 29000, 2167/9, ...