Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Info on new low-end Mac
Message-ID: <1824@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 25 Jul 90 23:51:41 GMT
Lines: 59
Return-Path: <lpami!lphillips>
To: van-bc!rnews

In <13128@yunexus.YorkU.CA>, pmcd@yunexus.yorku.ca (Phil McDunnough) writes:
>In article <1816@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes:
>>Sun's discounts to educational _institutions_ is indeed attractive, though that
>>discount is not necessarily available to students.
>
>Well, as you know that may change. But in any case, I was talking from 
>the point of view of a faculty member, as I still consider the A3000
>beyond the means of most students. If it isn't, then I should be paid
>more and tuitions raised! The list price of around $7000(FST in) and the
>SCSI port make the SLC far` less expensive to univers{ties than an Amiga.

Are you forgetting the SCSI port on the 3000? That $7000 (actually more like
$7400) is without a hard drive. Current pricing on 100 meg HDs will put that
a fair amount over $8000 (external drives only, on the SLC, requiring case and
power supply).

>>An Ethernet card and software to run it will cost in the order of $500 US.
>>Brings the cost of the 3000 up to about $6000 list. If CBM's Unix comes in at
>>over $1000, they will be about the same price.
> 
>Think about it. $6000 for an Amiga with a small 100 meg HD, and a very poor
>math coprocessor. The MFLOPS' rating from the 030/882 combination is not high.
>This $6000 price is not aimed at students, and you know it.

I am thinking about it. Sounds like $2000 less for the A3000. Yes, as I said
before, the SLC will outperform the 3000, but that wasn't what I was talking
about. I was referring to the statement that an SLC was less money than a 3000.

>The A3000 has a niche market(video) under the Amiga OS. So I was comparing    
>the typical faculty setup. No major companies have committed to the Amiga
>to my knowledge. As such, they won't make it in the corporate world( which
>may be a blessing in disguise). System V release 4.0 of Unix is still unstable
>and even if it weren't, people would still have to  port their software to
>the Amiga. As a simply example, try seeing if Statsci( a commercial vendor
>of S+-> a research statistical graphics package) will be having S+ running
>on the A3000. If they say yes, then I will take back every negative comment
>I have said about software availabilty for the Amiga.

Yes, under the Amiga OS, it is strong in video. I wouldn't say that's all it
does, though.

When sVr4 is available on the Amiga, and when SunOS 5.0 is available on the
SLC, the comparison will be more meaningful, since we will be talking about
two Unix machines, running eseentially the same OS, _complete with ABI
compliance_. If the vendor you speak of has done things 'right', it will run on
_ALL_ ABI compliant sVr4 implementations. What you will have then is a base
from which to judge the relative merits of the two machines vs. their price.

Meanwhile, the 3000 is lower cost than Sun's lowest cost workstation.

-larry

--
Sex is better than logic, but I can't prove it.
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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