Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!apple!amdcad!jetsun!weaver
From: weaver@jetsun.weitek.COM (Mike Weaver)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: ACE (Was: Will NeXT survive?  Grow with the times?)
Message-ID: <1991May10.163603.13008@jetsun.weitek.COM>
Date: 10 May 91 16:36:03 GMT
References: <1991Apr30.191117.4373@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> <576@appserv.Eng.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: weaver@jetsun.WEITEK.COM (Michael Weaver)
Distribution: comp
Organization: WEITEK, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 24

In article <576@appserv.Eng.Sun.COM> lm@slovax.Eng.Sun.COM (Larry McVoy) writes:
(About ACE machine):
>Q2 '92?  I suppose it could happen.  I'll be very impressed.

Consider these rumors that are probably facts:

1. MIPS has R4000 samples in-house now.
2. MIP has had a R4000 hardware simulator for some time,
   available to e.g. Microsoft.
3. Microsoft OS/2 derivitive for MIPS has been demoed to MIPS.
   (Microsoft appears to have been on this project for 
   1-2 years).


If these are true (and of course, some may not be), what remains to be 
done is the hardware design of the box, making the OS stable and 
reliable, and getting a few good applications ready to go. One year is
an aggressive schedule for all of this, to be sure, but not unrealistic.

Myself, I think the bigger question is not whether the thing can be made,
but whether it can be sold in sufficient quantity to get the 'critical
mass' needed to make it a product line with a life of its own.

Michael Weaver.