Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!rochester!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: AMIGA
Message-ID: <21321@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 6 May 91 23:43:56 GMT
References: <1991Jan10.082327.7378@rice.edu> <.v1G&v0*1@cs.psu.edu> <1553@ewu.UUCP> <&i4Gzkv*1@cs.psu.edu>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 44

In article <&i4Gzkv*1@cs.psu.edu> melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes:

>In article <1553@ewu.UUCP> mpierce@ewu.UUCP (Mathew Pierce) writes:

>   I think you missed his point.  I and several of the CS faculty persons here at
>   EWU agree with Dave Haney's point about a video accelerator.  Just think how
>   fast the display would be if it had it's own graphic coprocessor instead of 
>   using the CPU.  

>NeXT needed to have sound in the machine.  An IBM beep wasn't good
>enough.  

Sure it was.  This is a Workstation, they keep telling me.  What do you need
sound for?  OK, maybe voice mail, but a bus attached voiceband CODEC would add
a couple of bucks to the cost of the system, you don't need DSP for something
that low in bandwidth and that seldom used.  Only a personal computer would 
need good quality sound, for use with games, music education, that kind of
thing.

>I think a graphics coprocessor would have added to much to the cost.  People 
>are already complaining that the price is too high.

I'm not talking about something amazingly expensive here, just a simple, low
cost DPS rendering engine.  Put an '020, or an AMD29K, or anything that 
happens to be cheap this week in there.  This is DPS, after all, 100% device
independent.  And used for every line drawn in the NeXT display.  I'm not
suggesting anything that can actually animate for you, just something that'll
let you have a nice, snappy display without eating too much of the main
CPU's bandwidth.  That wouldn't have been much more expensive than the DSP,
and everyone would get to use it.

Anyway, that was my point.

>The NeXTDimension board is available(will be) for people who want to
>do some serious animation.

Assuming you have a NeXT Cube, and $4000 to spend.  But with that much money,
why not buy an Silicon Graphics system?  You not only get a serious graphics
system, but available software that can do something with those graphics.

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
      "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.