Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!amdcad!pepsi!phil
From: phil@pepsi.amd.com (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: $5000 workstations (???)
Message-ID: <29822@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 11 Apr 90 02:37:28 GMT
References: <3166@d75.UUCP> <12660004@hpcuha.HP.COM> <1990Mar31.040744.9854@world.std.com> <29723@amdcad.AMD.COM> <1990Apr10.221406.13391@world.std.com>
Sender: news@amdcad.AMD.COM
Reply-To: phil@pepsi.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai)
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 19

In article <1990Apr10.221406.13391@world.std.com> bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) writes:
|>How many 286/386/486 chips are bought every year? How many SPARC chips?
|
|I don't understand your point, are you saying that it's the cost of
|the CPU chip (lowered by high volume) which makes cheaper RISC systems
|impossible? I don't think that bears up under scrutiny.

CPU chips, motherboard chip sets, associated peripheral chips.
Just as one example, look at all the competition in the PC
graphics area. Everyone has a VGA chip. There are half a dozen
8514 clones going on. As a result, you can buy a vanilla VGA
controller for just a little over $100.

Now if you want to talk about a useful computer, then there's the
matter of software...

--
Phil Ngai, phil@amd.com		{uunet,decwrl,ucbvax}!amdcad!phil
The War on Drugs is the modern day Inquisition.