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From: rjc@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: What to buy??(numbercruncher)
Message-ID: <1991Jun20.161619.28418@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: 20 Jun 91 16:16:19 GMT
References: <63@ryptyde.UUCP> <4ocHh98?@cs.psu.edu> <77@ryptyde.UUCP>
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In article <77@ryptyde.UUCP> dant@ryptyde.UUCP (Daniel Tracy) writes:
>Responding to the following:
>
>"I think you must be under Unix(SYSVR2) to take advantage of the I/O
>coprocessors in the IIfx.  System 7 doesn't even utilize them.  That
>killer graphics coprocessor board won't work with System 7.0 for a few
>more months.  However, if you want a real killer graphics board, I
>would recommend the NeXTDimension board for the NeXT Cube.  I haven't
>seen any benchmarks, but it is using an i860, so I'm willing to be
>that it's damn fast!"
>
>No, the Mac OS takes advantage of the IIfx's I/O chips, just doesn't use
>the DMA of the SCSI controller. I agree about the NeXTDimension board.
>Too bad it isn't available for the Mac (there are i860 "cocomputers"
>available, but no graphics boards yet, I think). I haven't seen any
>benchmarks done either, but I've read a visual analogy of someone who
>was working with the board and comparing it with the IIfx. He said 
>with multiple 24-bit image windows up, moving one window from over the 
>other gives the impression that the other image is "just there", with
>no visual redraw whatsoever. The technical specs of this board are just
>short of incredible (to quote MacUser). 8 megs (expandable to 32megs)
>just for the board?! A 33MHz i860, JPEG compression, NTSC conversion
>with genlock.

 From what I've heard, the JPEG compression chip has been removed from
the design. The board is also incredibly expensive, and it's not
out yet. I don't understand its purpose, if it's for live video
NTSC is adequate, if it's for rendering/virtual reality why not just
buy a SGI? Something like this isn't going to take off in the broadcast
video/multimedia market when you can buy a Toaster for $1400.
The price of the ND is going to have to come down to compete with the
other integrated workstations out there.



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