Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!agate!ziploc!eps
From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: ColorStation questions
Message-ID: <1516@toaster.SFSU.EDU>
Date: 25 Apr 91 07:38:05 GMT
References: <1991Apr24.082948.17763@cs.ucla.edu> <559@rosie.NeXT.COM> <1991Apr24.231003@ece.arizona.edu>
Reply-To: eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott)
Distribution: usa
Organization: San Francisco State University
Lines: 35

In article <1991Apr24.231003@ece.arizona.edu> dan@ece.arizona.edu
	(Dan Filiberti) writes:
>                 NeXT claims that it can "display" 4096 colors on the
>screen at one time.  What they don't tell you, is that you really have
>control over only 16 colors!

No, you have sixteen steps on each of three color guns.  16 cubed
is 4096.  NeXT *never* claimed the NeXTstation Color offered
*photorealistic* color.  They said that this was their "baby
color" offering (while most of their competitors' "baby color"
offerings only permitted 256 simultaneous colors).  The physical
limitations of the display hardware in no way prevent the
manipulation of 32-bit-deep image data, but you can only view an
_approximation_ of what the "finished product" will look like
(think of it as "double precision" computation with "single
precision" output).

NeXT's *photorealistic* color product is NeXTdimension for cube
systems.  If you look in the Spring 1991 Software and Peripherals
catalog, you'll see that there are alternatives to that, too.

NeXTstation and NeXTstation Color are what they are--"frozen"
hardware configurations targeted at the "mainstream" customer.
Cube systems are available for those _few_ people that find the
'stations inadequate.

I assume that most sites will have a mix.  Here, NeXTstation
Color accounts for 10% of the NeXTs in SFSU's School of Science;
30% are cubes, and 60% are "regular" NeXTstations.  Color
machines aren't that prevalent because (1) they're relatively
expensive (2) the 17" Philips monitors NeXT foisted on us SUCK
(3) color displays don't add significant value to the machines
for most of our users.

					-=EPS=-