Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Computer Architecture question -- Daye Haynie Message-ID: Date: 10 May 91 14:52:54 GMT References: <12146@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Distribution: comp Organization: Penn State Computer Science Lines: 37 In-Reply-To: aru@mentor.cc.purdue.edu's message of 10 May 91 02:03:20 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws5.sys.cs.psu.edu In article <12146@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> aru@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Sri-Man) writes: > >Can you just drop a 68040 into any computer and expect it to be as >fast as a computer designed around the 68040? Now, can you just drop >an 88K processor in a computer that is based on the 68K and expect it >to work at all? You don't need to be a Daye Haynie to answer this question. :-) Of course not! If you stick a 040 on the first Mac it isn't going to be that great of a boost. You might as well just add a math coprocessor or something. If you are trying to say that the Amiga3000 was not designed for a 040 in mind. I think most of the people on here will tell you wrong. Correct me if I am wrong, but the Amiga3000 was built with the 040 in mind. Why do you think the accelerator cards with 040's in them are so cheap??? Ok, the A3000 was designed to handle the 040, but what about the 88K or 050? Amigoids keep shouting that the NeXTstation is not expandable, and that you can even put an 030 in the A500(32 bit bus -- I doubt it). In other words, they are saying that buying a nonexpandable machine is a waste of money. I claim that in 3 years(or 2) the system board will have to be redesigned for the new chips anyway, so making it expandable isn't going to really save you anything because it will cost more to build the expandable computer. If you want an expandable NeXT, buy the Cube which costs $2000(maybe more?) more than the NeXTstation. However, I think it's better to sell your old computer and buy the new one if you want the newer machine. What if the expandable Cube needs to be redesigned?? If you don't buy NeXT Dimension or some other board, you just wasted $2000. -Mike BTW, there are ports on the back of the NeXT to add modems, HD, etc.