Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Real System Comparisons (Was: Info on new low-end Mac)
Message-ID: <13464@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 27 Jul 90 01:35:03 GMT
References: <46200101@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> <1990Jul19.133752.5611@uunet!unhd> <27545@athertn.Atherton.COM> <2841@awdprime.UUCP> <27770@athertn.Atherton.COM>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 81

In article <27770@athertn.Atherton.COM> paul@Atherton.COM (Paul Sander) writes:
>I compared comparable machines.  The Mac IIci is second from the top, right
>below the Mac IIfx, really shouldn't be compared with the Amiga.  The memory
>is comparable, the processor speed is the same, disk is comparable.

The IIci and the 3000, unexpanded, do compare favorably.  I would compare a 
IIci with an A3000@25Mhz and a IIx with an A3000@16MHz, as these are the
closest comparisons you can draw, however flawed.

>Actually, it appears to be the market's perception.  Everyone I've talked to
>believes the number and quality of applications available for the Mac is
>higher than for the Amiga.

Don't know about quality, but maybe I'm biased -- the one program for the Mac
I use (because it's only on a Mac, not Amiga or PC) is by far the buggiest 
program of any kind I have ever used.  In general, there are indeed more
programs available for the Mac.  And even more for the PC.  This is likely
to imply more variety, which except for certain markets (video/animation for
one) is true.  It doesn't mean the Amiga is necessarily lacking in any
particular area.

>Certain electronic CAD packages, for example.  

If you're looking for a specific, brand name program, and that's your reason
for buying a computer, by all means, pick the program and then buy the
platform that runs it which best fits your needs.  If you're looking for a
specific type of program, there are only a few I haven't found for the
Amiga.

>Something I've looked for and haven't found yet is support for PLD 
>programmers.  

If you're programming PLDs, you better have a PC.  All the best PLD programming 
software is on the PCs, and occasionally one other platform.  We use CUPL and
occasionally Amaze here, and despite it's flaws, a PClone can serve as a
perfectly good PAL programmer.

>The stuff I do is CPU intensive; compiles and debugging sessions mainly, with
>just enough video support to show me what I'm doing.  

Debugging is rarely CPU intensive, it's brain intensive.  Compiling is about
1/2 CPU and 1/2 disk intensive.  Unless you have lots of memory, or an Amiga,
at which point it's all CPU intensive.  In other words, Amigas have about
the fastest hard disk interfaces you can get on a desktop computer.  The
A2091 controller from Commodore easily shows you the difference between the
fastest SCSI drives on the market, and the A3000's internal SCSI interface
is yet again faster.  And it's not just disk speed; the difference between
the A3000's FIFOed 32 bit DMA and the Mac IIci's CPU polled 8 bit port read
is eated out of the Mac IIci's CPU time.  You may not notice this on the
single-tasking Mac, but you will under UNIX should that be important to you.

>Do you really think an A/UX buyer will be "stuck" with rel 2?  Surely Apple 
>updates their software like everyone else.

Sure, Apple updates their software.  However, not like everyone else, near
as I can tell.  Apple has JUST released A/UX 2.0, and it's still release 2.
They seem to have done a fine job, this time, of integrating UNIX and MacOS.
You can even write UNIX applications that use the Mac GUI.  But who cares?
UNIX V.4 has a standard GUI that's NOT the Mac GUI; the last thing UNIX
needs is Yet Another GUI.  So, it's anyone's guess as to whether Apple will
update their software _like everyone else_.

>If they don't need it, the Amiga will force upon them the added overhead of 
>a preemptive task scheduler which will slow them down slightly.

Not true.  The Amiga system itself uses multitasking, so even if you're just
running a single program, you're winning more than losing.  Multitasking is
the main reason the system is still responsive even when you're saving a 
file or doing some terribly long calculation.  You can still move windows,
etc.  You don't just lock up like a Mac or PC does, and supporting this kind
of thing in the OS makes it all that much more efficient.

>Paul Sander        (408) 734-9822  | "Passwords are like underwear," she said,
>paul@Atherton.COM                  | "Both should be changed often."
>{decwrl,pyramid,sun}!athertn!paul  | -- Bennett Falk in "Mom Meets Unix"


-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
           The Dave Haynie branch of the New Zealand Fan Club