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From: joel@gould9.UUCP (Joel West)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac,net.micro.68k
Subject: Re: What's Nu with VME for Mac?
Message-ID: <847@gould9.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 1-Nov-86 13:05:13 EST
Article-I.D.: gould9.847
Posted: Sat Nov  1 13:05:13 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 3-Nov-86 23:34:38 EST
References: <842@gould9.UUCP> <1240@hoptoad.uucp> <203@druil.UUCP>
Organization: Western Software Technology, Vista, CA
Lines: 51
Keywords: NuBus, VME, slotted Mac
Summary: dollars and sense
Xref: mnetor net.micro.mac:7777 net.micro.68k:1415

In article <203@druil.UUCP>, lat@druil.UUCP (TepperL) writes:
> John's point about getting new technology faster is well taken.
> Just consider what might have happened had the original Mac been
> designed using the Multibus: instant Ethernet, instant hard disks,
> instant streaming tape.  You could've put a Fujitsu Eagle on a Mac
> if you had the money.  There have been 1024 x 1024 x 8-bit, full color
> image processing boards available for the Multibus for several years
> now.  
> 
> It's my belief that a Mac with a Multibus would have buried the IBM PC,
> rather than giving it some stiff competition like the real Mac did.

I won't argue the dis/advantages of the antiquated Multibus.

But there is a good reason why Multibus Mac would not have done well
against the IBM PC.

Can you say 'too expensive'?

Slots are not cheap; they require additional gold and power supply and
cabinet.  And I'm sure anyone in business will tell you that the cost
of parts and assembly gets rolled up 4-10 times before it reaches dealer
retail.

More significantly, the cost and size of boards for Multibus are probably
not suitable for the Mac.  (Note the previous posting which pointed out
that Apple has proposed microcomputer-sized NuBus cards.)  It wouldn't
be the same size, and it wouldn't be the same cost.

I'd say offhand, the two things Apple could have included with the 
original Mac to improve sales were:

	1. Provide socketed memory or empty sockets, with built-in
	   jumpers for higher-density chips.
	2. Provide an external port for high-speed peripherals, e.g. SCSI.
	   thus allow hard disks for business use.

They call this the Macintosh Plus, and it's outselling the 512e by about
3:1.

A lot of us like to second guess major companies; it's easy to do, since
most people on the net have never run one.  My inclination would be to
examine how a strategy could have been fine-tuned, since major companies
will tend to make their big decisions based on ego (Jobs) or sheer
weight of bureaucracy.

-- 
	Joel West			     MCI Mail: 282-8879
	Western Software Technology, POB 2733, Vista, CA  92083
	{cbosgd, ihnp4, pyramid, sdcsvax, ucla-cs} !gould9!joel
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