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From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger)
Subject: Re: Spotted Workspace ? Why? (and BlastApp??)
In-Reply-To: sritchie@cs.ubc.ca's message of 5 Apr 91 07:51:35 GMT
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	<1991Apr3.230504.27819@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1991Apr5.075135.23325@cs.ubc.ca>
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 18:10:18 GMT
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In article <1991Apr5.075135.23325@cs.ubc.ca> sritchie@cs.ubc.ca (Stuart Ritchie) writes:

   As for the latest threads about "NeXT should produce a cheaper
   machine with slower CPU" I do not agree with at all.  Don't
   forget how badly the 030 cube was criticized for poor perceived
   performance.  The last thing NeXT needs is another target for
   cheap shots from other vendors.

A NeXT with an educational discount of $2500 would definitely sell a
lot better than the current machine(not that it isn't selling well),
but NeXT would still have to deal with "but it doesn't have color."

   The RISC vs CISC debate is moot.  I think it would be a really
   bad move for NeXT to abandon the 680x0 series as their
   general purpose application CPU, especially after only 2 years!

HP will sell you a machine with a SPECmark of 54(57?) for $12,000.
Next year, the other workstation vendors will match that.  NeXT will
get left behind if they don't move to RISC.  As a friend of mine likes
to point out, NeXT has to be better than everyone else.  People will
buy from the competition just because they have always bought from the
competition.  Take Sun and Apple as to examples.

Quintessential example: I B M

   Notice that I say _general purpose_.  I would certainly welcome
   multiprocessor support based on other chips.  The DSP, i860 and
   C-Cube are fine examples.

   Out-on-limb-statement:  Dedicated multiprocessors are the way to go.
   Of course, a few 040's for general application use would also help :-)

Or one MIPS R4000.

-Mike