Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!lll-winken!aunro!alberta!news
From: kenny@niagara (Kenny Leung)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT Lab Opinions Wanted
Message-ID: <1991Jun3.024924.24036@cs.UAlberta.CA>
Date: 3 Jun 91 02:49:24 GMT
References: <10211.284573a0@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu>
Sender: news@cs.UAlberta.CA (News Administrator)
Organization: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Lines: 34

In article <10211.284573a0@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu>  
prender@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu writes:
> Hi.  Our research group needs to do real-time (or as close as possible)  
display
> (grayscale-ish images) and 2D FFTs of 100+ x 100+ arrays of numbers, along  
with
> standard 2- or 3D rotations of the generated images (basically all just very
> fast (compared to DOS on 386s) numbercrunching and graphics), and I've drawn
> the short straw on 'finding a suitable system' for the job.  So far, OS/2 2.0
> (32 bit), SUN (and similar) workstations, and the NeXT Machine have all come
> up for consideration.  I have myriad DOS (and related area) experience, but
> nothing of consequence on the others, and so I'm looking for some practical
> opinions of people actually USING NeXTs (or actually, ANY of the above  
systems)
> in a laboratory enviroment.
> 
> The price of NeXTs vs SUNs and other workstations, along with the lack of the
> infamous DOS 'features' (an 8-bit OS, 640k barrier; all that FUN stuff... :-)
> is VERY tempting to us, but I have NO experience AT ALL with even SEEING a
> NeXT run, and so hope to get some real nitty-gritty on the subject.  Anything
> provided would be greatly appreciated.  As usual, EMAIL is sure to be read
> but postings to this group should be noticed as well :-) ...
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> S Prendergast
> OSU Physics
> prender@ohstpy.mps.ohio.state.edu                 prender@ohstpy.BITNET


The NeXT has 4 gray scales on screen plus built in PostScript dithering.
the 68040 is capble of doing 15 mips and about 2.5 mflops, plus there is a
56001 DSP (10 mips) to handle array processing.  Plus, the NeXT is absolutely
the best development platform there is.