Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!rutgers!usc!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!kenb
From: kenb@amc-gw.amc.com (Ken Birdwell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Programming the NeXTdimension
Message-ID: <3706@amc-gw.amc.com>
Date: 23 Oct 90 21:57:02 GMT
References: <90285.084516SLVQC@CUNYVM.BITNET> <90290.23490234X3TAN@CMUVM.BITNET>
Reply-To: kenb@d9.amc.com (Ken Birdwell)
Organization: Applied Microsystems, Redmond, WA
Lines: 32

I've heard that:
    "Its currently not possible for outsiders to write software for the i860".  

What! Why? Thats really stupid!  The i860 is the only reason Im interested 
in the NeXT.  Ive been pricing i860 boards for the IBM PC world and the 
cheapest I can find is $5k for a 1Meg board with no software.  Most start 
around $8k and dont even have their own video output, you have to go over the 
stupid PC bus to display anything (Gads, really sloooooowwww).  When I saw 
that NeXT was selling a i860 board for $4k with 8Meg and video output I thought 
"Boy, dump this stupid 286 and get a NeXT."   

Now I hear that it'll be useless to me.  I just got done talking with some guy 
at NeXT and he said that they dicided they were not going to give access to 
the i860 directly. Why, whats the reason?  I couldnt care less about 
PostScript, I need floating point speed.  Currently I write image rendering 
software in assembly on a AT&T DSP32C.  I run it under XENIX on a 286 and have 
written device drivers so it's fairly painless. I know that I can get a 
board for my 286 that'll do 25MFLOP's and can be hooked up to a display for 
around $2k.  Still, I need more MFLOP's and I would like for my code to run 
on something other than a obscure board.  Ive been looking at i860 boards 
and have been quite nervous about getting one because of lack of support for 
it if the company I buy it from happens to fail.  I figured that even if 
NeXT dies in the next few years I would be much better off with a obsolete 
piece of equipment from them then from some no-name company.  

Anyway, why doesn't NeXT want to allow access to those 80MFLOP's?  (Well, I 
know I can get at least 15-40 from it).  From everything Ive read the NeXT 
Dimension board is by far the best on the market.  Realtime video capture 
and compression, 24bit color, 40MHZ i860.. what more could you ask for.  Now 
I find out they wont let me use it :^(   Life's not fair. 

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