Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!coolidge From: coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu (John Coolidge) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Sun's Competitive Strategy (Was: Re: P1754 Message-ID: <1990Dec6.005211.7490@julius.cs.uiuc.edu> Date: 6 Dec 90 00:52:11 GMT References: <1990Nov16.225515.494@zoo.toronto.edu> <1990Nov25.194404.3376@dircon.uucp> <1635@unix386.Convergent.COM> <1990Dec2.014554.3491@Neon.Stanford.EDU> <2760@cirrusl.UUCP> <2764@cirrusl.UUCP> <76095@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> Sender: news@julius.cs.uiuc.edu (USENet News) Reply-To: coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu Distribution: na Organization: U of Illinois, Dept. of Computer Science, Systems Research Group Lines: 38 kls30@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Kent L Shephard) writes: >A 386dx is comprable to a 68030 and a 386sx blows away the 68020 and >lesser members of that family. sx does not stand for sucks. I have >an sx at home w/4 megs of RAM, 800x600 display, 100 megs of disk storage >3 floppies, midi interface, modem, mouse etc. 386sx's are pretty much the same, operationally, as 68020's. I've got a Mac II at home w/8 megs of RAM, 640x480 display (so I'm cheap :-)), 470 megs of disk storage, 2 floppies, 2 modems, mouse, printer etc. Peripherals don't prove very much. Computationally, it's pretty hard to tell the difference. >You obviously haven't seen many Super VGA displays. Remember a Classic >only has a 9" screen and something like 540x480 display (????) I know >I wouldn't call a Classic's screen high resolution. You have to get >a large monitor to get better than the resolution avail. on Super VGA >800x600 and 1024x768. You're confusing resolution with pixels. The resolution of a Macintosh monitor (any Macintosh monitor from Apple and almost all third party monitors) is 72+/- 1 dpi. >>winner!! And as a computer architect, I cringe every time I think of > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >Then you also cringe when you think of the design of 680x0 machines >right ???? The 680x0 is a much cleaner architecture than the 80x86, if for no other reason than that the backward compatibility is limited to a reasonable processor (8086! gimme a break!). --John -------------------------------------------------------------------------- John L. Coolidge Internet:coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu UUCP:uiucdcs!coolidge Of course I don't speak for the U of I (or anyone else except myself) Copyright 1990 John L. Coolidge. Copying allowed if (and only if) attributed. You may redistribute this article if and only if your recipients may as well. Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com