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From: rehrauer@apollo.HP.COM (Steve Rehrauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Commodore at FCC
Message-ID: <4d104ad7.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 27 Sep 90 19:07:00 GMT
References: <22107@grebyn.com> <14568@cbmvax.commodore.com> <22153@grebyn.com> <14621@cbmvax.commodore.com> <90268.122650UH2@psuvm.psu.edu> <14649@cbmvax.commodore.com>
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Reply-To: rehrauer@apollo.HP.COM (Steve Rehrauer)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA
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In article <14649@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:
>I like some of what I see NeXT doing, especially with their software.  But
>the basic NeXT cube wasn't anything much different than an A3000 in terms of
>what the basic hardware is capable of.  NeXT may have a lead on 68040 
>machines, but I doubt you'll find a 68040 NeXT performing faster than some
>future 68040 Amiga.  Or an A3000 with 68040 board that any 3rd party can
>build, for that matter.  I suppose we'll have to wait to see what happens when
>these kind of things ship.  I don't see the "baby" relationship as being
>valid, either taking the Amiga vs. NeXT on cost or performance.  In fact, it'll
>be a bit harder to see performance differences between 68040 machines than
>it was with 68030 machines.  And in the 68030 machine race, the A3000 and the
>Cube are pretty even.

    I think you're oversimplifying matters, Dave.  My shabby Datsun and a
    sleek new Porsche both use the same basic hardware; so what?  Dropping
    a Porsche engine into my Sentra does not a hot car make.

    It seems to me that in a head-to-head between an A3000 and the new NeXTs,
    the Amiga clearly loses on base hardware.  CD quality sound?  A megapixel
    gray-scale display?  105 Mb drive?  2.88 Mb floppies?  No doubt all of
    those things can be added to an A3000, but the salient point is that
    they're all part of the base NeXT package; you don't get any less than
    that.  And if you want to consider options, the NeXTdimension color board
    -- 32-bit color with real-time video compression -- sounds like a treat.

    And Display PostScript at useable speeds (which is what NeXT'ers seem to
    be saying the '040 buys them) seems like a feature deserving of more than
    a casual, "Oh, but that's just software".

    On the other hand, so what?  Do you really see C= and NeXT chasing the
    same customers?  Even two years down the road?

>  For fast 68030 machine, talk to HP/Apollo.

    On this we're in complete agreement. :-)  If anything, my employer has
    more to worry about from NeXT than yours, I'd think...
--
   >>"Aaiiyeeee!  Death from above!"<<     | (Steve) rehrauer@apollo.hp.com
"Spontaneous human combustion - what luck!"| Apollo Computer (Hewlett-Packard)