Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!austing
From: austing@apple.com (Glenn L. Austin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Where's the color?
Message-ID: <921@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 13 Mar 89 17:15:17 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 43
References:<520@umiami.miami.edu> <12600@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <21440@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>

In article <21440@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> air@anableps.berkeley.edu writes:
> I am on the IBM(clone) side of this debate.
> I like at least 16 colors out of a pallate of 64(EGA) for cad.
> 
> I like 256 out of 256000 for buisnes presantation graphics.
> 
> A slide maker for this purpose is well under ~4000.00 (~1000.00)
> and slide making services are available.
> 
> A 286 with VGA HIGH LEVEL can be had for ~2000.00
> 
> A 386 with same(to compare with MACII) for ~3500.00
> 
> These often include Harddrives.
> BTW: The monitors are at least 14" diagonal on all i've seen.

  Does *all* your software support it???  Probably not, since I used (and 
sold) IBM PCs, XTs, ATs, and PS/2s, and all you really get is a 
character-based machine that has the ability to do graphics (poorly).  
What happens when EVGA comes out?  Oh well, upgrade all your software to 
make use of it.  Also, if you tried any of the graphics-based shells yet 
(like Windows)?  You probably did, and unless you had a 20MHz 386, you 
probably gave up on it,  and couldn't understand why a lowly 8MHz Mac Plus 
could outperform your clone when it came to graphics.  The simple reason 
is this -- 5 to 4.  For every average instruction, the Intel processor 
reads 5 bytes, one at a time, whereas the Motorola processor reads 4 bytes 
in one chunk, and then can execute it.  Why is this difference 
significant?  Because it is faster to read memory in a chunk, and because 
the Intel processor has to (on average) read 1 byte, find out it needs a 
second byte to even determine which instruction to execute, read that 
byte, find out that it needs some more data, read that data -- and so on.  
However, the 680x0 reads 4 bytes at a gulp, and since ~75% of all 
instructions (~85% of commonly used instructions) fit within that 4 byte 
window, the processor has all the info it needs!
  Also, I can print pretty decent color on my ~$450 ImageWriter II -- without having any additional drivers, hardware, or special software.  I know from experience that you can't say the same about the IBM!!!

austing@apple.com
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