Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!uunet!kithrup!sef
From: sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: ACE (Was Re: Will NeXT survive?  Grow with the times?)
Message-ID: <1991May01.024228.9685@kithrup.COM>
Date: 1 May 91 02:42:28 GMT
References: <1991Apr29.164102.11221@kithrup.COM> <1991Apr30.191117.4373@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> <32459@usc>
Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd.
Lines: 44

In article <32459@usc> ajayshah@alhena.usc.edu (Ajay Shah) writes:
>In article <1991Apr30.191117.4373@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> umh@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>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.

There is an OS (although it's for the R3000 right now), and rumours I've
picked up from several people indicate that MIPS should have a working R4000
withing a couple of months.  Compaq and DEC are busily designing right now,
and are awaiting the chip before they actually begin productin.

>Would $2k-$5k be without a 17" monochrome megapixel screen?

With.

>Will ACE machines run binaries for today's MIPS machines (or is
>that a meaningless statement because of DEC byte ordering?)  

Yes to the first question.  The kernel must deal with binaries of both byte
orderings (fun, eh? 8-)).

>If so,
>will they have binary compatibility between machines which boot 
>a MS-DOS and those which boot Unix?  

SoftPC, I am sure.

>Where does the support
>announced for Intel processors come in?  Do they mean the Intel
>80586 or the Intel N10?

I *believe* that the goal is to support the same OS on both '386s (and
'486s, of course) and on the MIPS-based machine.

All of the above is based on rumours and comments I've picked up from about
8 or 9 different places, and, while I believe it's true, I have no
affiliation with any of the companies involved, so I could be completely
off-base.

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "I made the universe, but please don't blame me for it;
sef@kithrup.COM  |  I had a bellyache at the time."
-----------------+           -- The Turtle (Stephen King, _It_)
Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.