Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!tank!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!bingvaxu!leah!itsgw!imagine!pawl17.pawl.rpi.edu!night
From: night@pawl17.pawl.rpi.edu (Trip Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k
Subject: Re: 32K "do-it-yourself" kits...
Keywords: The Ultimate Scrooge...
Message-ID: <1669@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Date: 7 Nov 88 06:13:29 GMT
References: <2613@sultra.UUCP> <7532@nsc.nsc.com> <1039@stratus.UUCP>
Sender: news@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU
Reply-To: night@pawl17.pawl.rpi.edu (Trip Martin)
Organization: RPI Public Access Workstation Lab, Troy, NY
Lines: 48

In article <1039@stratus.UUCP> gbs@stratus.UUCP (George B. Smith) writes:
>I suggest that the 532DK, otherwise known as the 532 Designer Kit, would *not*
>be an appropriate starting point for a system.  There is no bus, there is only
>128k of static RAM with no provision to expand it, there is no provision for
>adding a mass storage device, i.e. disk of any kind, there is no provision
>to add networking, etc, etc.  The 532DK is just what George Grenley stated
>before, a demo board which proves that it is possible to wire a 532 up to
>other chips and run small benchmarks generated by expensive 32k software
>tools which must run on expensive host systems.  There is a "wire wrap area"
>on the board which George must be referring to when he says that "with work"
>the 532DK "can be a real OS9/Minix/GNU/whateve system".  I would say a *lot*
>of work that would be of questionable value.

It depends on the individual.  For a computer engineering student like
me, it's a great deal.  For less than the cost of a cheap PC clone, I
get a '532 (probably cheaper than if I bought the '532 by itself, 
although I haven't been able to get prices yet), plus the additional
hardware to get a system up pretty quickly.  I can also learn from it
as an example of a high-speed system, even if it isn't necessarily
production quality.  Eventually, I could use the '532 in a system
of my own design.  Granted, I'm talking about a lot of work, but it's
also a lot of experience.
 
As for software, Gnu supports the 32000 series.  Besides, I don't think
it would be too difficult to write a simple assembler for experimenting
with the 32532.

I would say your comments apply to companies thinking of using the '532,
but there are quite a few people who could get a lot of of the 532DK.

>National does not want to cater to the low cost , low volume market.
>Now my question is of the chicken or the egg variety, is it because
>they in fact *can't* do it or they just don't want to?  Let's put it
>another way, if they thought they *could* do it, would they find a way
>to get it done?

I don't blame National for not catering to the low-cost, low-volume
market, since by definition, there is little profit to be gained by it.

If you were National, would you want to spend lots of resources on
a minimal profit-margin market?
--
Trip Martin
night@pawl.rpi.edu
userffs7@rpitsmts.bitnet
Trip Martin
night@pawl.rpi.edu
userffs7@rpitsmts.bitnet