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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: IBM RT: first impressions
Message-ID: <6382@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Feb-86 20:56:06 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6382
Posted: Sat Feb  8 20:56:06 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Feb-86 20:56:06 EST
References: <1400012@orstcs.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 25

> ...Runs at about 68020 speed...
> 
> Floating point performance with no FP accelerator is about as fast as
> an AT with a '287.  With the FP board ($850), they say it's faster...
> 
> ...It's priced to compete with the Microvax II, i.e. $11K to $30K...

Then why bother?  Buy a Sun 3 or another 68020 machine.  If it isn't
distinctly superior on either price or performance (and the 68881 is a
good deal faster than AT-with-287, I believe), then why take a chance
on an oddball product that IBM may drop next year?  Especially with only
a 16-bit bus for peripherals.

> This product will definitely give DEC (and everybody else) a run for
> their money.  Although it's a bit pricey, DEC is too and high prices
> never stopped IBM before.  Apple or S. Jobs had better hurry or IBM
> will sew up the academic market...

Don't forget Sun and Apollo, who are much more price-competitive and
function-competitive than DEC.  Beating DEC prices and performance has
never been terribly hard, so comparing the RT against DEC hardware is
a joke.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry