Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!bloom-beacon!apple!bionet!agate!web-1e.berkeley.edu!c60a-1cu From: c60a-1cu@web-1e.berkeley.edu (Drew Dean) Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k Subject: Re: 32K "do-it-yourself" kits... Message-ID: <16761@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 9 Nov 88 20:31:08 GMT References: <2613@sultra.UUCP> <477@unocss.UUCP> <39@gnome6.pa.dec.com> <1264@cfa.cfa.harvard.EDU> <930@taux01.UUCP> Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 52 Ok guys, I'm one of those poor starving students -- I bought a Mac SE (through a Certified Developer, ie. discounted) last October over an AT&T Unix PC because I realized something: As much as I like to "hack" (better use quotes these days :-)), as a student, I spend a LOT of time doing other things, like word processing. MS Word on the Mac is much better for getting a paper out the door than the standard Unix tools. (My opinion, but near WYSIWYG vs dot commands means I only print things once, instead of finishing a paper at 10pm and not gettting any sleep because I can't get the print right...) I do a lot of modeming, and there's good software for that, too. Yes, I would like a 32 bit Unix box, (typing this from one of UCB's Sun 3/50's), but it better be under $1500....This eliminates the '532, as I just don't think it can be done....Now as to what I'd do: 1) Use a cheaper processor (ie 32332, but I don't know what a 16Mhz part costs), running at about 16Mhz. Remember, this is a single user system, and most of the time is wasted spent on the computer waiting for me to type something. 2) Put 2Mb RAM (of 256K chips) on the motherboard, and provide for expansion to 8Mb via 1M chips. 3) Put a SCSI port on the thing, as SCSI drives are getting cheap. (Volume from Mac sales may have something to do with this, all I know is that at the retail level, 20-40Mb SCSI drives have fallen $200-400 (roughly proportional to capacity), in the last year. 2 mail order places I know of are selling Quantum's 40Mb, 19ms drive with mouting hardware and Mac software for $650. Also, make sure the system will work well with a 40Mb drive.) 4) Leave the user the option of using an existing computer/terminal as the system console, or using a PC clone keyboard and a VGA monochrome or NEC Multisync GS monitor (ie. 640 * 480 or 800 * 600 monochrome graphics on a 14" screen). 5) Get a solid Unix on this system...If GNU arrives in reasonable working condition, that would be great...However, GCC still has some bugs (read gnu.gcc.bugs), and I think it will take another 6 months to 1 year for GCC to stablize, and about the same time for the GNU kernel (even if it's Mach) to become really usable. If GNU isn't there, National should step in by offering cheap binary licenses (4.3 BSD would be WONDERFUL, but I'll take Sys V). National -- tell the MBA's that you'll be getting a whole bunch of EECS students across the nation familiar with NS products, and look how well Apple's done in the last couple of years :-) Even in this group, I think it's safe to say that the NS32xxx series has not been a big commercial success for National Semi, although it does have technical merit. Conventional marketing techniques haven't worked very well, so why don't you try something a little different.... Drew Dean Internet: c60a-1cu@web.berkeley.edu UUCP: ...!ucbvax!web!c60a-1cu FROM Disclaimers IMPORT StandardDisclaimer;