Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Fed up with MIPS
Message-ID: <3300078@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 25 Oct 89 04:34:00 GMT
References: <76700077@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Lines: 32
Nf-ID: #R:p.cs.uiuc.edu:76700077:m.cs.uiuc.edu:3300078:000:1114
Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Oct 24 23:34:00 1989


I am sick and tired of hearing comparisons with the auto industry.

		CARS			PCs
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lifespan	prop. to miles		prop. to age, independent of on-time

Failure		almost total failure	almost never fails totally
Mode		at 100-140K miles	wears very unevenly; most parts
		(most types of cars)	have longer life expectancy than
		wears evenly		a car's.

Wear points	engine/body/brakes/	Hard Disk/Keyboard/Power Supply
		tires/interior
Cost of
fuel		increasing		constant

Source of	Mostly Custom		Mostly standard/commodity parts
Parts					(Hardware)
					Custom (Software)...but software
					doesn't wear out!

Repair		off-market 5 yrs	off-market X yrs
parts		after last model	after last model
		from company X		from ALL companies,
					but plug-compatible replacement parts
					may still be available later.

Reason to	age; safety 		Envy of another system's software/speed
junk		increases; risk of	AND no upgrade path (3rd-party vendors
		driving somewhere	often provide upgrades for popular
		without spare parts	"ophan" machiens (XT;Mac128K;Lisa))