Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!ogicse!milton!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!sritchie From: sritchie@cs.ubc.ca (Stuart Ritchie) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Low End NeXTs (was Re: Desktop publishing) Message-ID: <1991Apr3.220544.22348@cs.ubc.ca> Date: 3 Apr 91 22:05:44 GMT References: <14483@life.ai.mit.edu> <4753@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> <34936@athertn.Atherton.COM> Sender: usenet@cs.ubc.ca (Usenet News) Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 42 In article <34936@athertn.Atherton.COM> dlw@Atherton.COM (David Williams) writes: >NO! Leave the networking in. Just take the NeXTStation pizza box and >use the 030/25 setup[cpu/fpu/dsp] in and sell for $2495. NeXT's [...stuff deleted...] >David Williams I wonder if 68030 + 68882 costs more than a 68040? --- Some potential garbage not necessarily related to David's posting: Maybe the real trick in getting usable MIPS is multiprocessing. Sure, 56 MIPS sounds great, but don't forget that your cache gets destroyed at interrupt time, thus reducing 56 MIPS to DRAM speed. Well, OK, I don't know what I'm talking about, but maybe there is some truth to that statement. Hell, take a look at networking. Even 15 MIPS isn't enough to drive TCP at Ethernet rates in the Unix environment. This is one area that could use some dedicated multiprocessor support. Something tells me that having a scalable multiprocessor architecture is the way to go. I sure haven't done my homework to back this statement, but it's a gut feeling. --- About BlastApp: great game. Highly addictive. But one thing that worries me is this. I remember reading a disclaimer somewhere saying that the game may suffer performance problems on a 030 machine. I'm really worried about this. Even with a tiny window like BlastApp has, is DPS really that much of a bottleneck? Or were there some efficiency compromises made by the implementor? Where does the real bottleneck lie? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I really like the stuff that can be done with Display PostScript, and I've taken advantage of this power in my own applications. I hope to never have to write another X or Motif application again. Later dudes! ...Stuart Wot's uh... the deal?