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From: lrm3@ellis.uchicago.edu (Lawrence Reed Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: The Fate of the Macintosh
Message-ID: <1991Mar22.172314.29602@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 22 Mar 91 17:23:14 GMT
References: <1991Mar22.145326.27445@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu> <1991Mar22.162359.1419@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Sender: lrm3@midway.uchicago.edu (Lawrence Reed Miller)
Organization: University of Chicago
Lines: 32

In article <1991Mar22.162359.1419@nntp-server.caltech.edu> rpm@sgi1.wag.caltech.edu (Richard P. Muller) writes:
>In article <1991Mar22.145326.27445@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu>,
>medlin@rucs2 (Roger Medlin) writes:
>[...very interesting suggestion about a Mac software clone to run on
>NeXT platform...]
>>Comments ?
>
>Sure, a couple.
>	I believe that someone is already working on a SoftPC-type
>clone of Mac Roms for the NeXT. Should be out RSN.
>	Software clones are in general terribly slow. I've heard that
>SoftPC only runs at about IBM XT speed (i.e. awful), even though the
>NeXT is a tremendous platform (as you mentioned, 15 MIPS). If you want
>good performance on Macintosh software, you best bet for the money
>will always be a Macintosh, until the fabled clean-room hardware
>clones of the Mac ROMs materialize (also RSN), and maybe even then. 

The NeXT shouldn't need to do a software emulation like SoftPC does.  Since
the 68040 understands the same native machine code as the Mac uses, you
wouldn't need to emulate the machine code with software, 'cause you've got
hardware.  You would still need to come up with a (legal) version of all of
the Mac toolbox traps.  A closer analogy might be Amax running on Amiga, which
I understand does not suffer any performance loss.  The Amiga uses 680x0 series
chips, like the NeXT.  Of course, the NeXT runs UNIX, so it runs preemptive
multitasking; getting Mac programs to run in this sort of environment might
be tricky, though Apple _did_ pull it off in A/UX.

Once Apple starts shipping 68040 based Macs, the perfomance differences
between high end Macs and NeXTs will become less significant, though the
price difference will probably remain :^(

Lawrence Miller