Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: NeXT/Amiga Flamage: Get a life. Message-ID: <5*1G-jlk1@cs.psu.edu> Date: 8 Apr 91 23:51:13 GMT References: <46867@ut-emx.uucp> <1991Apr8.222503.23643@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Organization: Penn State Computer Science Lines: 39 In-Reply-To: rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu's message of 8 Apr 91 22:25:03 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws5.sys.cs.psu.edu In article <1991Apr8.222503.23643@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell) writes: Michael, you keep saying Display Postscript isn't a problem, but in fact it is. Interpreted languages are usually on the order of 4-10 times slower than compiled languages. DP is reasonably complex, and given how large postscript descriptions of complex screens can get, I'd say that your 15mips DP interpreter would run at an effective 2-3 MIPS. (Probably slower than SoftPC) If Jobs was smart, he would have put an extra 68030 in the NeXT to offload the DP work. If an Amiga user adds an 040 card to the A3000, the onboard 030 will become availible for offloading i/o, etc. I agree that a coprocessor would be nice, but that is more hardware which adds to the cost. I'm surprised that there is so much hardware in the NeXT now, considering how little hardware was in the original Mac. Anyway, Display Postscript is not a bottleneck as far as I can tell. Paging can bring things to a halt though. Also, considering that Display Postscript uses floating point numbers, I think something other than a 68030 would be more appropriate. After all, the 68040 increases most floating point functions by 5-10 times the speed of the 68882. NeXT is putting the i860 on the NeXT Dimension board, but that's for people with bucks. The advantages of Display Postscript outweigh the disadvantages in the reduction in speed(IMHO). A better WYSIWYG will benefit DTP more than the speed. Adobe Illustrator, for example, won't need a preview mode on the NeXT as it does on the Mac. Serious animation is the only thing that is hindered by DP, but people who do serious animation can probably afford to spend $4000 on the i860, or better yet, a SGI. The A3000 does have a nice niche market with the Toaster, but I'm not a cable TV company. Have you seen the NeXT? If not look at Scene, and the Fish and Eagle movies if you get a chance to see one. Also, look at a game BoinkOut, and BreakApp, two Breakout like games. You can definitely do some animation on the NeXT, I'm just not sure how much. -Mike