Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!emory!hubcap!ncrcae!ncr-sd!se-sd!cns!dltaylor
From: dltaylor@cns.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Dan Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m88k
Subject: Re: Open Hardware
Message-ID: <926@cns.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Date: 30 Apr 91 00:13:54 GMT
References: <16@metran.UUCP>
Organization: NCR Corp. SE-San Diego
Lines: 36

In <16@metran.UUCP> jay@metran.UUCP (Jay Ts) writes:

>	PC-compatibles	massive		open hardware and software;
>					"de facto" industry standard.

"standard", HA!  Why do you think all of the software vendors have to
ship video drivers for every card with their programs?  There is a
sort-of standard ISA, "plain" VGA, but it's so lame that most customers
WILL NOT use it.  And the card vendors ship drivers for some programs,
like Windows, so people will be able to use them.

>	SPARC		huge		open hardware and software;
>					formal standard - SPARC International

Some standard.  I can use VME, S-bus, or ...  How do I write a shrink-wrap
kernel for that?  Not to mention the FP and MM variations.

The last thing I want is a hardware standard.  Why use the results of a
committee working in 1991 to limit your hardware potential in 1995?  How
do you deal with improved cache architectures, faster/wider buses, or
interfaces that haven't even been invented yet?

A binary standard is necessary, these days.  A presentation standard, or
two (OpenLook and Motif, for example) will be soon, if it isn't already.
Media compatibility is also necessary.  These standards allow software
vendors, the (IMHO) real driving force in our industry to create and
package their products, and support them, at a cost-competitive level.
After all, no matter how good (or bad) a computer is, it's the software
that does the customer's useful work.

A hardware standard removes the only place that the "iron" vendors can
differentiate their products.  Who needs that.  NOT me!!!!
The day an 88K hardware standard exists, is the day the 88K dies.

Dan Taylor
/* My opinions, not NCR's. */