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From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Forth Engines / Harris
Message-ID: <2079.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us>
Date: 9 Dec 90 23:33:30 GMT
Organization: String, Scotch tape, and Paperclips.  (in Pgh, PA)
Lines: 54

Category 6,  Topic 15
Message 216       Sun Dec 09, 1990
F.SERGEANT [Frank]           at 14:55 CST
 
 DENNIS MCCUNNEY writes:
 .
 >     Er, how large do you perceive the Forth community to be?  The 
 > difficulty with semiconductor technology is the up-front cost: 
 > designing, debugging, and tooling up for production.  Actually 
 > *making* one more isn't that expensive on an incremental cost basis, 
 > but adding in the amortisation of the up-front cost changes the 
 > numbers *very* quickly.  It worked for the 6502 because millions of 
 > them wound up in low-end Apple, Atari, and Commodore machines.  I 
 > can't really see that happening with the Harris chip.
 .
 . 
    Er, I think we have a misunderstanding.  I was not saying that the  Forth
community would PURCHASE the chips in such volume to cause the  RTX to
succeed.  I meant that it would write the tools, compilers,  whatever - as it
has already done (and stand ready to write the  applications).
 .
    Your next point is the same as mine, but with perhaps a different 
interpretation:  they have already SPENT the money for those up-front  costs.
 .
    I believe you have it exactly backwards.  The 6502 was used in the  Apple,
Atari, Commodore machines BECAUSE it was cheap.  Aggressive  pricing greatly
undercut the competition, forcing even people who  didn't like the chip to use
it.  And, I might add, it was used in at  least some of machines because poor
grass-roots hardware hackers could  afford the chip, used it, and were
therefore familiar with it.  
 .
    I'm saying that is my OPINION (which I may not be qualified to  possess)
that Harris HAD (and may still have with very aggressive  action and pricing)
a similar opportunity to price the RTX so people  would HAVE to use it whether
they liked it or not.  THIS pricing could  have opened doors their sales force
could never open merely on the  processor's technical merits.
 .
    I rank the factors in this order:
      PRICE
      SECOND SOURCING &/OR CONFIDENCE IN CONTINUED DELIVERY
      PRICE
      PRICE
      TECHNICAL SUPPORT TOOLS
      PRICE
      YOUR ENGINEERING STAFF'S PREFERENCES
 .
   Obviously there is a LOT of room for disagreement with my scale.  
 .
   I'll look forward to further news and opinions about the RTX.
 .
  -- Frank
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