Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!msi.umn.edu!noc.MR.NET!gacvx2.gac.edu!gacvx2.gac.edu!scott From: scott@next-5.gac.edu (Scott Hess) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Sorry Guys, There is NO WAY! Message-ID: Date: 11 Dec 90 22:38:05 GMT References: <21993@well.sf.ca.us> <1747@aldebaran.cs.nps.navy.mil> <16455@cbmvax.commodore.com> Organization: Gustavus Adolphus College Lines: 56 Nntp-Posting-Host: next-5.gac.edu In-reply-to: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com's message of 11 Dec 90 18:39:51 GMTLines: 56 In article <16455@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes: >In article <21993@well.sf.ca.us> yoo@well.sf.ca.us (Young-Kyu Yoo) writes: > As for matching NeXT's price/features, the Amiga has a very long way to >go. Where's that Amiga DSP? Those Amiga DMA channels? Some clarifications are in order. As for DSP, we didn't find DSP far enough evolved to build it in at this point. You can get REAL DSP, as in floating point, on an expansion card built by one of the third parties. Like the CPU, once you pick a DSP, you're locked into that instruction set. When DSP has advanced enough to be useful to the average system user, it might go on the motherboard, assuming there's nothing better to spend that money on. NeXT, for instance, would have done much better installing a display processor to make Display PostScript run faster, at least on the original cube. That would be appreciated by everyone using the box, not just audio people. The correct question is "Where are those DSP apps on the NeXT?" Anyone can buy a DSP for the Amiga. Considering that programs to use it are probably going to cost bucks, you might as well buy a DSP in the bargain. The locked instruction set is noticable when you notice that the new NeXTs have 56001s, yet, rather than 96001s. 56001s suck, because that's not floating point, that's fixed point. Sure, it's great for sound but it's not so good for running ray-traced Mandelbrot sets on. Besides, it only has 24k of memory (though I hear the new ones can get more). Don't put a DSP on your motherboard until you can support 256k, C=. Agreed wrt "better to install a display processor". That was one of the biggest faults of the Mac (everything done on the main CPU), and is one of the biggest faults of the NeXT. The '040 helps, but now it's even worse - that windowserver will be swapping your code out of cache. I think that NeXT should talk C= into some sort of cross-licensing. C= gets the appkit and DPS, NeXT gets Angus and Bertrand and Carmen, and whatever else those chips are named :-) You know, the blitter and all. >That Amiga Mach with parallel processing capabilities? Is the NeXT Kernel the multiprocessing verison of Mach? If so, where are the multiple processors? A board full of '030s, if it could have been used by the NeXT OS, would have solved NeXT's speed problems much earlier than the '040. Correct question here is "Where is the multi-processor NeXT?" Enough said? -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer GAC Undergrad "Tried anarchy, once. Found it had too many constraints . . ." "Buy `Sweat 'n wit '2 Live Crew'`, a new weight loss program by Richard Simmons . . ."