Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uoft02.utoledo.edu!desire!cse0507
From: cse0507@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Sculley letter (was: Low Blow from Apple)
Message-ID: <1354.2708c74c@desire.wright.edu>
Date: 2 Oct 90 21:58:52 GMT
References: <794@mtune.ATT.COM> <13924@smoke.BRL.MIL> <799@mtune.ATT.COM>
Lines: 30

In article <799@mtune.ATT.COM>, rkh@mtune.ATT.COM (Robert Halloran) writes:
>>>If Apple were to announce a RISC box in October, then say that existing
>>>Mac owners could get a board for it to run Mac Plus programs (NO color,
>>>etc), how would the Mac community feel?
>>
>>Note that this is in fact a plausible scenario, although not in the
>>October 1990 time frame.  The 68xxx architecture is nearly maxed out
>>at this stage.  Note that Sun Microsystems Inc. shifted their future
>>from 68xxx to SPARC (a RISC architecture) some time ago, similarly
>>for Silicon Graphics Inc. (68xxx -> MIPS), and even Digital
>>Equipment Corp. is moving in the RISC direction for workstations.
>>I detect a trend here..
> 
> Doug,
> 
> 	My gibe wasn't at the possibility of a RISC Mac, but at the
> idea of Apple announcing such a box, offering the existing Mac users
> an emulation of only the minimum 68K-based model and cutting them off
> from making use of any of the applications targeted for the Mac II line,
> and then disowning ALL the existing 68K-based models.  

> 	I agree that the rumors lean towards a 'RISC Mac' sometime soon.
> I expect, though, that when that time comes, the Mac community will not
> be cut off from their high-end 68K applications.  We in the A2 community,
> especially those of us that have supported the GS, appear to be getting 
> kissed off.

I don't see much of a reason to move to a RISC implementation of a 68K when
50 Mhz versions are already available in full implementation. Maybe this is
what Apple will use in the machine replacing the fx.