Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!ukma!gatech!hubcap!rchampe
From: rchampe@hubcap.UUCP (Richard Champeaux)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: NeXT announcement (was Re: Atari Workstation)
Summary: $1995 seems a little slim to me
Message-ID: <3364@hubcap.UUCP>
Date: 27 Oct 88 20:40:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: hubcap.3364
References: <1449@wayback.UUCP> <6528@pyr.gatech.EDU> <10019@cup.portal.com> <234@obie.UUCP>
Organization: Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Lines: 25

In article <234@obie.UUCP>, wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) writes:
> 
> Whoa, wait a minute here!  Who said anything about the "Atari
> WorkStation" or "AWS" being a transputer machine?  In last week's
> _InfoWorld_, Cringely lists it as having a 25 Mhz 68030 for the main
> processor, along with the Motorola 56000 DSP chip, 1 Meg system RAM, 1
> Meg Video Ram, 44 Meg removable hard disk, mondo graphics, a 4-slot
> passive backplane with CPU occupying one slot, etc... for (ta da!)
> $1995.
> 
> "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
> certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell



    Isn't the 25MHz 68030 still in the $400-$600 range?   The 56000 probably
isn't cheap yet either, and the 2 Meg of memory is going to cost a couple of
hundred.  That's already a sizeable chunk of $1995 and doesn't leave much
for development and profit.  Of course, I haven't heard anything mentioned
about a cache or virtual memory.  If that's the case, I suppose you could
slap something together rather cheaply, but it certainly wouldn't be a
high powered workstation.  I'm not sure I'd call it anything more than a
high powered personal computer.

Rich Champeaux
Clemson University