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From: lm@slovax.Eng.Sun.COM (Larry McVoy)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Will NeXT survive?  Grow with the times?
Message-ID: <576@appserv.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 10 May 91 02:11:25 GMT
References: <1991Apr30.191117.4373@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
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Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, CA.
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umh@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes:
> 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.

I don't normally get into this sort of thing and probably shouldn't now,
but I find this statement a little hard to stomach.  Are R4000's even taped
out yet?  Maybe I missed something, but I thought that the R4000 was a 
future chip.

Let's suppose that I could get one in my grubby little paws today.
I still have to build a motherboard, a case, all that glob.  Call it
9 months of a very agressive schedule.
I still have to have an OS that runs on the thing.  Call it another 9
months on an extremely aggresive schedule.

Q2 '92?  I suppose it could happen.  I'll be very impressed.
---
Larry McVoy, Sun Microsystems     (415) 336-7627       ...!sun!lm or lm@sun.com