Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!grebyn!ckp
From: ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Commodore at FCC
Summary: Good C= exposure; a shocker from NeXT
Message-ID: <22107@grebyn.com>
Date: 19 Sep 90 23:34:07 GMT
Reply-To: ckp@grebyn.UUCP (Checkpoint Technologies)
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing, Vienna, VA, USA
Lines: 45

I went to the Federal Computer Conference today.  Commodore had a
major boot and a full-page ad in the show program.  They had A3000's
running Unix V.4, X windows, and Open Look.  They were running the
Penn and Teller promo video for the Video Toaster, and it was drawing
a crowd.  They were handing out pens; I got one.

By The Way...

NeXT was there too.  They had a bevy of cubes sitting around for
demos. They also had a new box: the NeXTstation.  I picked up a
brochure.

It's in a box that looks just the same size and shape as the
SPARCstation 1, but it's black (like the cube).  It's got a 105 Meg HD
and a 2.88 meg floppy drive; no more optical.  It has 8 Meg RAM
standard.  It still has the 17" monitor with 4 shades of grey.  With
the reduced disk space, they no longer include the works of
Shakespeare or Mathematica (still available but not included),
otherwise the software looks the same.  It's got one expansion
connector that appears to be for connecting the video display
circuitry (therefore, it's now upgradable, and NeXT has been promising
color for a while now).

The shockers: It sports a 25MHz 68040, yes, an Oh Forty.  And the list
price is $4995.

If I speculate the price of an A3000 plus 68040 plus 8 meg RAM plus
Viking 1 monitor plus Unix, I seem to get a number higher than that.
I don't mean to be a doom-sayer, but I don't see much reason to buy an
A3000 to run Unix when the NeXTstation looks the way it does.  And
it's got the DSP, the sound, and it runs Lotus - the brochure talks
almost as much about Lotus Improv(tm) as it does about the rest of the
machine.

While Commodore was pushing their low-end architecture up into the
high end, the high end architectures have come down to meet them.  I
don't want to be a doomsayer, but I don't think the A3000 will compete
on their terms.  I don't know what Commodore could do to compete.
Maybe they'd better stick to the low end.  Or maybe Commodore has a
new high-end up their sleeve.
-- 
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