Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!midway!ncar!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!travis!tom From: tom@ssd.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) Newsgroups: comp.sys.m88k Subject: Re: Tektronix shutdown & move away from 88k's?? Message-ID: Date: 22 Oct 90 11:40:14 GMT References: <1536@ftc.framentec.fr> <1990Oct19.120218.9450@canterbury.ac.nz> <15497@hydra.gatech.EDU> <2176@lupine.NCD.COM> Sender: news@travis.csd.harris.com Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division Lines: 35 In-reply-to: rfg@NCD.COM's message of 21 Oct 90 19:31:27 GMT >>>>> Regarding Re: Tektronix shutdown & move away from 88k's??; rfg@NCD.COM (Ron Guilmette) adds: rfg> I believe that rumors of the 88k's demise are greatly exagerated. So rfg> what if one marginal player drops out of the workstation business. rfg> (Tek is still in the X-terminal business after all.) BFD. I agree - I priced a Tek 88k workstation and I could not believe anyone would buy one at the prices they were charging (especially for memory), apparently I was right... Someone else pointed out the advantages of cloning and binary compatible software to improve the acceptance of an architecture. I might point out that the 88k is the *only* RISC chip with a binary compatibility standard and an AT&T approved (big deal) ABI is ongoing for Sys V.4 - MIPS really got shot in the foot here when DEC decided to run their bytes backwards. At that point a BCS or ABI for the entire line of machines using the MIPS chip became a hopeless dream. rfg> Anyway, even if (over time) that became true, MIPS would *not* be the rfg> first chip I though of as being (necessarily) the next in line for the rfg> #2 spot behind Sparc. I don't know about this - according to a magazine I have in front of me now Alex Brown Investors Report (whoever he is) claims that RISC workstation sales in FY 1990 were SPARC 187,000, MIPS 45,900, and HP, IBM and everyone else 32,000 - so MIPS is pretty solidly entrenched at the #2 spot right now (not that that means they will stay there). -- ====================================================================== domain: tahorsley@csd.harris.com USMail: Tom Horsley uucp: ...!uunet!hcx1!tahorsley 511 Kingbird Circle Delray Beach, FL 33444 +==== Censorship is the only form of Obscenity ======================+ | (Wait, I forgot government tobacco subsidies...) | +====================================================================+