Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!gblock
From: gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: NeXT Press Release
Message-ID: <11224@uwm.edu>
Date: 20 Apr 91 22:49:52 GMT
References: <1991Apr20.124248.6059@cc.helsinki.fi>
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From article <1991Apr20.124248.6059@cc.helsinki.fi>, by jalkio@cc.helsinki.fi:
> In article <11146@uwm.edu>, gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block) writes:
> 
> Well, first of all, 10% of 15 MIPS is not 2.5 MIPS... :-)

No, 10% of 25 mips is 2.5.  Which is what the magazine I have at hand
lists the 68040 used at its potential has.  It says 25 mips average.
And even if it was 1.5 mips, and the 68000 runs at .8, it would still
be the fact that I could have an extra 68000's power for my raytracing.

> 
> And then: The point is functionality versus speed. And I think your
> "EXTRA 2.5 MIPS FOR APPLICATION USE" is quite a bit misleading. The DP
> doesn't take _any_ speed when the machine doesn't draw anything! And most of
> the machine doesn't draw much - at least not more than a few lines or
> text (I doubt that takes 10% of performance compared to some other as
> advanced windowing system with Unix). 

I'm saying that it is nice.  Really nice.  For SOME applications.  But
if I'm using something that doesn't need WYSIWIG, I don't want to
waste processor ticks on a useless task.  And since I _NEED_ color,
and since it does slow down the graphics, color+dp+my heavy-duty
applications = a very bogged system.  Now if I can knock out one of
the slower aspects, guess which it would be?  DP.  It's nice.  But it
could have been done so that you can turn it off for certain
applications, or at least turn it off when you want to.  It's not all
that much work.

> 
> I somehow get the impression that some people here try to find _every_
> little "bad point" of NeXT and brag about it continuously.
> 

And I get the impression that some views on DP are biased because of
the computer they own.  I want DP for the Amiga.  Yes, I do, I'm not
making a joke.  But I want to treat it the same way I treat
multitasking- I want to be able to turn it off at a whim.  I can stop
multitasking, can you stop DPing?  I didn't think so.  Which is why
anything processor-intensive will run faster on an Amiga than an
EQUIVELANT NeXT.  Maybe it won't be as device independent, but even
that may come to us in time...

Greg


-- 
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All opinions are my own, and not those of my employer.
Why?  He doesn't know I'm doing this.
								-Wubba