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From: greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: A3000UX - Born to run UNIX SVR4
Message-ID: <44101@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 12 Feb 91 22:49:19 GMT
References: <1519@pdxgate.UUCP> <1991Feb9.063711.17280@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1529@pdxgate.UUCP> <1991Feb10.070030.9222@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Feb11.151101.4834@cc.helsinki.fi>
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Reply-To: greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
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In article <1991Feb11.151101.4834@cc.helsinki.fi> jalkio@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
>In article <1991Feb10.070030.9222@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>, rjc@geech.ai.mit.edu 
  (Ray Cromwell) writes:
>>   The NeXT probably won't last 5 years. In 5 years your machine will be
>> absolete since you can't expand it.
>
>Hmmph! NeXT currently has _3_ basic models:
>
>NeXTstation (4-grayscale, no expansion slots, but lot's of good
>interfaces)
>
>Color NeXTstation (as above, but with color)

I don't know what you call good interfaces, but there's no way to put any
add-on hardware on the 040 bus, so the only expandability it through costly
SCSI kluges.  Are you going to add that second DSP via SCSI?  

>NeXT Cube (as NeXTstation, but with expansion slots)

This is the only NeXT that I feel will survive, other than in a networked
office where they users don't need special hardware.  I don't know how
easy it would be to replace the 040 whenever more powerful chips are
out, though.

Anyway, if the 040 can't be replaced in any of the NeXT models, then they
_will_ be obsolete in 5 years (or less).

>And how do you think that the SPARCstations can survive, then?
>They are much like the NeXTstation expandability-wise.

Bite your tongue!  Except for the bottom-of-the-line machine (which is pretty 
nice, in fact) they have S-Bus expandability and most (all except the SLC?)
have a graphics accelerator expansion.  The NeXTStation is only competitive 
with the SLC.

Greg
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