Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!brunix!lr
From: lr@cs.brown.edu (Luigi Rizzo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer
Subject: prices of transputers and i860
Message-ID: <66231@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 26 Feb 91 05:20:23 GMT
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: lr@cs.brown.edu (Luigi Rizzo)
Organization: Univ. di Pisa - Fac. di Ingegneria
Lines: 32

Does anyone knows the approx. prices - in USA and other
countries, qty 1 - for a T800-20 and an i860 ? I'm trying
to figure out the cost/MFLOP of these CPUs, and what could
it be the price of the H1.

And what about the prices of TRAM modules ? In Italy (note -
Inmos is now owned by SGS, which is italian) a T800-20 is priced
around $450 (1 pc.) and D-RAMs are just a little more expensive than
here in the USA. Now, how comes that a TRAM with a T800-20 and 4M DRAM is
priced $3000-3500 as a minimum ? One of those salesmen once told
me that "there are high design costs for these boards"... perhaps
he did really believe it!
As far as I know, prices in the UK are not much better,
so one of the following must be true:

- TRAM modules are kind of a toy: you buy one (or an evaluation
  kit) and don't care too much about the price; then your
  interest disappears and you don't buy them any more so that
  there is not enough demand to keep prices low
  (and those who are really interested in massive use of Transputer,
  and do care about their [company|school]'s money, sure they
  build their own modules...)
- the TRAM design is patented, so there are some high royalties
  to be paid;

Any ideas about that ?

	Luigi
==================================================================
Luigi Rizzo                Brown University & Univ. di Pisa
e-mail: lr@cs.brown.edu, luigi@iet.unipi.it
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