Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!diamond.bbn.com!hlison
From: hlison@bbn.com (Herb Lison)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: BS2 vs 386
Message-ID: <10903@emerald.BBN.COM>
Date: 28 Apr 88 14:04:13 GMT
References: <101@imspw6.UUCP>
Reply-To: hlison@bbn.com (Herb Lison)
Organization: BBN Laboratories Incorporated, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 21

In article <101@imspw6.UUCP> bob@imspw6.UUCP (Bob Burch) writes:
> 
>IBM fears the 386 chip, knowing that it could kill their 36's, 38's
>etc. and possibly even their small mainframes ( e.g. one of the new
>Mylex 386s with one of the new multi gigabyte optical disks; don't laugh
>too hard).  They have therefore tried to discourage it's use by charging
>$10000 for their own 386 machine, as usual hoping nobody will notice all
>the people out there selling 386 machines for $2000.
> 
There is a lot of truth to this.  At my last job we developed a version
of ANS MUMPS for the PC that supported 24 concurrent users on a Compaq386
(using the Arnet Smartport boards for terminal support).  Normally to get
that level of performance customers had to purchase a PDP-11/44 or a 
VAX 11/750 at substantially greater cost.  For example, a large
configuration on the Compaq, including 300 Mb SCSI disk, tape backup and
3 Arnet Smarport boards was under 15,000.  Compared with a VAX or PDP-11/44
at more than 50,000 the 386 system is a tremendous bargain.  Multi-user
systems based on 386 technology are going to make a big dent in the mini-
computer marketplace.  Watch out DEC! Watch out Big Blue!

Herb Lison