Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: The TT is finally there!
Keywords: TT
Message-ID: <14450@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 14 Sep 90 16:14:23 GMT
References: <1898@ztivax.UUCP> <1990Sep12.190508.3153@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <1990Sep13.172935.1342@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <1990Sep13.185245.15406@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <2298@atari.UUCP>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 47

In article <2298@atari.UUCP> apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes:
>cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Christopher M Mauritz) writes:

>>The machine's architecture is too closed to be of
>>any use as a workstation.

>I beg to differ!  I think having SCSI and VME means there is a great
>deal of openness.  

I would tend to agree, to a point.  The typical Desktop workstation, today,
isn't very expandable.  These are typified by the Sun Sparcstations; the SLC
has nothing other than SCSI, the standard Sparcstations have 2 (monochrome)
or 1 (color) S-Bus slots open.  

True workstations, however, are used in a much different situation that most
PCs.  You rarely add more than 8-16 megabytes of RAM to a workstation.  It
probably has a hard disk in the 100-200 meg range, and it's hooked up to a
network.  Tape backup, modems, additional storage is managed by a server node
in the network, so there's little if any need to go beyond what the basic
hard disk, memory, and Ethernet in a workstation.  You pretty much get all
you need in the basic package or over the network.  Third party developers
aren't crazy about workstations.

On a PC, on the other hand, you're often in need of more configurability, and
expansion cards cost considerably less than MultiBus or full-fledged VME.  PC
users add alternate displays, multiple serial port cards for their BBS, DSP
cards for music, massive memory and coprocessors for ray tracing, data boards
for lab work, etc.  PC cards tend to be cheap when compared with workstation
cards, both due to economies of scale and to generally less expensive and
complex design requirements on PC buses.  Maybe not all at once (Apple claims 
the AVERAGE Mac II owner uses 1.1 NuBus slots).  You can probably substitute
a high end PC with a card or two (there days, probably just Ethernet and, for
some Workstation needs, a color megapixel display) for a Workstation -- 68030,
68040, 80386, and 80486 machines are CPU-speed comparable with low end
computers designed specifically to be workstations.

The other big difference you generally find is software cost.  You don't pay
$2000 for a Spreadsheet or Wordprocessor for your ST, more likely $100-$200.
But it's not licensed for network use.

>Opinions expressed above do not necessarily	-- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.


-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
      Get that coffee outta my face, put a Margarita in its place!