Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!iear.arts.rpi.edu!fargo From: fargo@iear.arts.rpi.edu (Irwin M. Fargo) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Sun's Competitive Strategy (Was: Re: P1754 Message-ID: Date: 6 Dec 90 05:25:35 GMT References: <2764@cirrusl.UUCP> <3+_7KS1@xds13.ferranti.com> <1990Dec6.035617.4873@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Organization: Fargo HQ, Inc. Lines: 37 Nntp-Posting-Host: iear.arts.rpi.edu In article <1990Dec6.035617.4873@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes: >In article <3+_7KS1@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >>In article <2764@cirrusl.UUCP> dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) writes: >>> [users] are mostly buying machines running 80286 and 80386 CPUs at 16 >>> MHz or higher. >> >>But running DOS this horsepower is pointless > > >That is simply false. Try running Autocad or TeXing my book, >or previewing the TeX output. Or integrating 24 simultaneous linear >ODEs for a million steps. For those tasks a 20 MHz 386 is enough >power, but most certainly not too much. > >Doug McDonald Although I'm not a big MuShy-DOS fan, I do feel MS-DOS has one advantage over most other OS's for the Intel based PC machines: it was poorly designed. This has basically allowed developers to mix design modes. Most programs will do screen I/O by writing directly to video memory while file I/O is done using MS-DOS system calls. Being able to bypass the OS, of course, is de- pendent on compatibility between hardware systems, but it's there, and it allows a developer to take full advantage of the available computing power, albeit, with a possible trade-off in portability. My point, simply, is that in most cases, MS-DOS, by being poorly designed, has provoked developers to bypass the OS and give more horsepower to the user. Mind you, I'll be getting myself an 80386 machine soon and hopefully I'll be running UNIX with X-Windows. Ooh! So scarey! Thank you and happy hunting! Actually: Ethan M. Young "If Linus looked like Worf, would you Internet: fargo@iear.arts.rpi.edu try to take his blanket away?" Bitnet (??): usergac0@rpitsmts.bitnet - dorsai@pawl.rpi.edu Disclaimer: Who said what? Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com