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From: shor@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Melinda Shore)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: demise of 8086 family?
Message-ID: <656@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Jun-85 22:26:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: sphinx.656
Posted: Wed Jun 12 22:26:57 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Jun-85 04:19:56 EDT
References: <120@SCINEWS.UUCP>
Organization: U. Chicago - Computation Center
Lines: 33

[]
> From: ned@SCINEWS.UUCP (Ned Robie)
> When IBM comes out with their 370 on a chip(s), the future of the 8086
> family is, I believe, in serious question.  

Too late.  The XT/370 has been around for at least 6 months, and clearly
hasn't done the Intel chips any damage.

> What would be the point in dragging the 8086 along over the LONG HAUL?

While MS-DOS isn't perfect, it sure makes more sense on a desktop computer
than CMS does.  Do you really want the CMS file system on a PC? (Gak!)
Also, some people like graphics and color.  Neither is available on the
XT/370 running in either 370 or terminal mode.

> As for 8086 segmentation... IBM needs to give its customers some reason
> to switch to the 370 when it's ready.  Segmentation is simply planned
> obsolescence.  

I dunno about that -- I have nothing against segmentation per se.  64K
fixed-size segments, though ...

What, by the way, would be the point of dragging the 370 architecture over
the long haul?  Is this something we really want, given newer
architectures (National Semi 32K chips, RISC, etc.)?  The Intel family has
its problems, but there are alternatives other than the 370.  There's been
lots of progress in machine architectures -- let's take advantage of them.
-- 
Melinda Shore
University of Chicago Computation Center

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