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From: asg@pyuxf.UUCP (alan geller)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Fed up with MIPS
Summary: MBAs use lots of CPU power, too
Message-ID: <615@pyuxf.UUCP>
Date: 12 Nov 89 16:59:43 GMT
References: <76700077@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <112400004@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Lines: 41

In article <112400004@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>, ajs33293@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> /* Written  7:37 pm  Oct 18, 1989 by gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu in uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.arch */
> /* ---------- "Fed up with MIPS" ---------- */
> About being "fed up with MIPS"
> 
> ... discussion about how engineering users need powerful platforms, but
> ... clericla users only need PC-XT-level power.
> 
> To keep the PC industry thriving we must produce many more technicians
> and design engineers, to use high-MIPS CPUs in design optimization and
> simulation.  There is a big possibility that the U.S.  educational
> system will let us down.  Science and Engineering are unpopular
> subjects; everyone wants to be a business major.
> 
> So I'm again predicting doom for the PC industry, but this time for
> different reasons.
> 
> Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois

Everyone wanting to be a business major isn't so bad.

True, they won't want to run SPICE, or fancy CAD software, but they WILL
want to run large spreadsheets, and they'll want results in seconds, not
minutes, and they'll want color 3-D graphs, not tables of raw numbers.

Don mentions the Mac II; he should try running Wingz on anything less.
Even on a Mac II, using Wingz makes you want a IIx or IIcx, and from
what I can see, Wingz and 'presentation' spreadsheets like it are the
wave of the future, for MBAs anyway.

Actually, I've found that management types also like programs such as
PowerPoint, which requires real horsepower; FullWrite or Word 4.0 instead
of a simpler, smaller word processor; and, coming soon, decision support
systems on desktop micros.

I hope!!

Alan Geller
Regal Data Systems
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