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From: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: A3000UX academic pricing (was Re: A3000UX at UniForum?)
Message-ID: <1991Feb9.045633.30739@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 91 04:56:33 GMT
References: <32529@auc.UUCP> <1991Feb8.180341.22098@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <4fb2b745.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Sender: news@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (The Daily News)
Reply-To: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 52

In article <4fb2b745.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM> rehrauer@apollo.HP.COM (Steve Rehrauer) writes:
>In article <1991Feb8.180341.22098@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes:
>>	The NeXT has a final version of the 040. NeXT is the only
>>company currently receiving the 040 because they did all the
>>debugging for Motorola, kinda an inside deal.
>
>   Sorry, the second statement is patently untrue.  A number of systems
>   developers have been working with '040s for quite some time; NeXT is
>   far from the only "debugger" of this chip.
>
	What I MEANT to say was accurate. 8-) According to many
people I've heard from, NeXT has been having a much closer
relation with Motorola than most, working directly with them to
catch bugs. I didn't mean to imply that no other developers have
them, just that NeXT had a special relationship and that they are
reaping the benefits now.

>   And the fact that NeXT has apparently been shipping '040 NeXTstations
>   for some number of months leads me to believe that not only is the first
>   statement incorrect, but that they were either jumping through hoops to
>   avoid floating-point bugs or just plain not exercizing the chip very
>   well; not the sort of thing you'd want for your sole Q/A, I'd think.
>
	It hasn't been "some number of months", more like 2.
They've had demo units for a while but just recently began
shipping finished units. And if NeXT isn't shipping the final
040, but some Beta, then they are in store for a LOT of lawsuits
because they haven't told anyone.

>   What is true is that the supply of '040s is somewhat tight at the moment,
>   as Motorola ramps up and tries to satisfy pent-up demand (which was
>   created in large part by their tardiness in delivering working silicon).
>
>> If there are any
>>bugs in it, they will be in everyone's.
>
>   Motorola may very well decide that some bugs are too obscure to be
>   worth fixing (strictly speculation on my part).  My impression is
>   that they're placing most of their resources into their 88k RISC line
>   these days.
>--
>"The goons are riding motorcycles, but WE'VE  | (Steve) rehrauer@apollo.hp.com
> got a whole big metal car! This will be like | The Apollo Systems Division of
> stepping on ants..." -- Freelance Police     |       Hewlett-Packard


	-- Ethan


Q:	What's the definition of a Quayle?

A:	Two right wings and no backbone.