Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Sun's Competitive Strategy (Was: Re: P1754 Message-ID: <3008@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Date: 7 Dec 90 16:37:59 GMT References: <1990Nov16.225515.494@zoo.toronto.edu> <1990Nov25.194404.3376@dircon.uucp> <1635@unix386.Convergent.COM> <1990Dec2.014554.3491@Neon.Stanford.EDU> Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) Distribution: na Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY Lines: 26 In article peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: | But, really, for UNIX the day of the CISC processor is pretty much over. | Neither the 80x86 nor the 68000 are significantly price-competitive with | the low end Sparcs, and they're looking less exciting all the time. But... what are you comparing? If it's dickless workstations, there are virtually no vendors of them with CISC chips. You win by default. If you talk about free-standing systems, the 486 wins hands down. There are a number of vendors selling 486 systems at a price which allows the total system, with 300+MB disk, 8-12MB RAM, 800x600x256 display, UNIX, compilers, and X to come in under $6k. With a bit of very careful shopping you can come in pennies under $5k. And since you said "low end" in your posting, I have no hesitation in saying that the system is faster for integer, and about as fast for float. The 25MHz 486 SPECs between the SS and SS+ as I recall. I'm still trying to get a useful personal system with an SX for $3k with software, and I'm getting real close. Then project cheap-ix will be complete, and I can stop building, testing, and selling off systems in my spare room. -- bill davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) VMS is a text-only adventure game. If you win you can use unix.