Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekig5!wayneck
From: wayneck@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Wayne Knapp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A new Amiga from Japan?
Message-ID: <5389@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM>
Date: 16 Jan 90 02:54:09 GMT
References: <1317@corpane.UUCP> <9351@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 40

In article <9351@cbmvax.commodore.com>, daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:

> The 68030/68882 will be faster than your '386/20, which will in turn be faster
> than the FM Towns.  The time depends alot on what you're tracing.  

Actually there is a lot more to the ray tracing speed than you mentioned.  
For one thing it can make a huge difference what kind of compiler is used.  
On 386 machines there is a wide range of compilers/tools to choose from.  
Using a native 386 complier can make a huge difference in program speed.  

Another thing that can make a difference is how much memory is needed.  If
you are into very serious rendering chances are you can't afford to put 
enough memory on the system.  This means going to a harddisk based rendering.
(I believe that the PIXAR RenderMan render does this even though it normally
doesn't do ray tracing.)  In such a case it is often faster and much cheaper 
to use a pc clone that has very fast hard disk access and maybe even uses a 
large hard disk cache to enhance performace more.  

Finally, the pc market is currently a lot hotter than the Commodore market
and as a by-product of this speed increases seem to be comming much faster.
I bought a cheap clone and it was a 25Mhz system and now 33Mhz systems are
getting cheap.  Plus there are lot more vendors of things like Transputer
boards, 88K boards and DSP boards. 

Seems to me that you have to be closing your eyes a little to say the Amiga
has the speed edge on ray tracing - it all depends on what you are comparing
to what. 

> Same here.  It does sound interesting.  The name is silly, though.  I 
> mentioned before, FM Towns sounds like some guy who lives next door to MC Boon
> and Billy-Bob Thudpucker.

This is a interesting statement.  My wife is Japanese and she told me that
'Amiga' is a wierd name and sounds like some kind of Indian word.  So I just
asked about the name 'FM Towns' and she said, "FM Towns sounds a lot more
sophisted than the name Amiga".  I guess it depends on your background.  Note
my wife was born and raised in Japan and didn't start learning English until
she was almost in high school. 

                                            Wayne Knapp