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From: ajayshah@alhena.usc.edu (Ajay Shah)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: ACE (Was Re: Will NeXT survive?  Grow with the times?)
Message-ID: <32459@usc>
Date: 1 May 91 02:20:34 GMT
References: <1991Apr29.144421.19819@oakhill.sps.mot.com> <1991Apr29.164102.11221@kithrup.COM> <1991Apr30.191117.4373@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
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In article <1991Apr30.191117.4373@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> umh@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>In article <1991Apr29.164102.11221@kithrup.COM>,
>sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan) writes: 
>> A four- or five-fold performance increase at roughly the same price.
>> 
>> Meanwhile, an R4000 machine, based on everything I've seen and heard, should
>> run for about $10k or so (monochrome, I'm sure) and should be quite speedy.
>
>A MIPS rep today told me to expect ACE machines (the compaq/microsoft etc
>group) at $2K to $5K in Q2 92.Of course these will be no cache except the 8K+8K
>on the R4000, and crippled in various other ways to be as cheap as possible,
>but will presumably still be far above PC/Mac/Amiga performance.

This is the first real information I have read about ACE
machines.  Hmmm, Q2-92: sounds ambitious to me considering we
start with no chip, no OS, etc.

Would $2k-$5k be without a 17" monochrome megapixel screen?
(this is the entry level Sun today).  While we can expect
dramatic gains in computing over the next two years, I don't
think we'll see dramatic gains in monitor technology.

Will ACE machines run binaries for today's MIPS machines (or is
that a meaningless statement because of DEC byte ordering?)  Or
will they try to invent an application base from scratch?  If so,
will they have binary compatibility between machines which boot 
a MS-DOS and those which boot Unix?  Where does the support
announced for Intel processors come in?  Do they mean the Intel
80586 or the Intel N10?

I really hope these guys get something going: much as I like
using Sun computers, there should be some real competition else
Sun will grow fat!

-- 
_______________________________________________________________________________
Ajay Shah, (213)734-3930, ajayshah@usc.edu
                             The more things change, the more they stay insane.
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