Xref: utzoo comp.benchmarks:273 comp.sys.apollo:7497 comp.sys.hp:7234 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Newsgroups: comp.benchmarks,comp.sys.apollo,comp.sys.hp Subject: Re: 040 NeXT (was:Performance of HP/Apollo 9000/425t???) Message-ID: Date: 20 Dec 90 03:09:19 GMT References: <1990Dec18.222547.17877@pa.dec.com> <1990Dec19.150649.9647@news.cs.indiana.edu> Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Organization: Penn State Computer Science Lines: 33 In-Reply-To: mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu's message of Wed, 19 Dec 90 15:06:49 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: client5.cs.psu.edu In article <1990Dec19.150649.9647@news.cs.indiana.edu> mikes@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Michael Squires) writes: Please define "personal workstation" - is it simply a matter of CPU throughput? Is it running some form of UNIX? Is it a state of mind? If a "workstation" is simply UNIX box that is comparable in CPU throughput to what Sun, et al, are selling as "workstations" then the personal workstation appeared some time ago - a 386 running 386 UNIX, 030 NeXT, others. I would define a personal workstation to be Unix(memory protection, virtual memory, networking, etc -- i.e. a "real" OS), workstation performance, and a GUI(and apps) as friendly as the Mac's GUI(and apps). There has always been a significant gap between the performance of personal computers and workstations, especially in floating-point performance. While workstations (and Unix) are notorious for having a huge learning curve("raw" Unix is not for the masses), and until recently they were expensive. The 040 NeXT could finally be the bridge b/w the two markets. It's a Unix box with horsepower, and a user-friendly GUI at a reasonable price. Just want mom always wanted; no need to buy her a MacinToy for Christmas now. You could argue that the 030 NeXT was the first "personal workstation", but it was a bit pricey, and it did lack in performance. Anyway, I hope that it's the machine that will finally get the world out the confines of 640K, TSR programs,... There are a lot of people who are really looking forward to DOS 5.0 :-(. -Mike BTW: Are there any SpecMarks available on the 25 MHz 68040? I might be getting exited over nothing.