Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!uunet!yale!blenko-tom
From: blenko-tom@CS.YALE.EDU (Tom Blenko)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXt Performance/Price
Message-ID: <56267@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 8 Apr 89 05:49:26 GMT
References: <2648@tank.uchicago.edu>
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Reply-To: blenko-tom@CS.YALE.EDU (Tom Blenko)
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept, New Haven CT  06520-2158
Lines: 41

In article <2648@tank.uchicago.edu> phd_ivo@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes:
|Let's be fair here. The NeXt has a real problem when it comes to computing
|power, but it still is a bargain. If you add up the cost of an optical disk and
|or tape drive for mass backup (>$3,000), the cost of a 9600baud model (>$600),
|the cost of Mathematica for a comparable system ($1,500), the cost of a display
|system (>$1,200), and the cost of a UNIX license (>$400), you will realize (1)
|that the MIPS, and a lot of other goodies of NeXt is almost free, and (2) that
|any comparable 88K system costs twice as much. In addition, NeXt's other
|peripherals are cheap.

I disagree:

	* There is no reason to buy a backup device for a single system in
	  this day and age. If you amortize the cost across many systems,
	  the cost per workstation goes down considerably.

	* The NeXT machine does not provide a modem of any sort. Furthermore,
	  many purchasers of Mac/Sun systems don't need or use a modem, so if
	  it had one for cheap, it wouldn't enter into their purchasing decision.

	* I doubt that most users of the NeXT machine will ever use Mathematica
	  except as a toy. If there were lots of people willing to pay the price
	  you quote, I dare say Wolfram Research would be worth a bundle (and
	  in fact the price would have come down).

	* Lots of users get by with a $600 display subsystem (university prices)
	  on current Mac II's. I suspect the marginal gain for the NeXT
	  display would be worth much less (in fact, you can look at
	  the SuperMac and such to establish such prices -- but these
	  only apply for those who choose to shell out the money).

I predict that a lot of people aren't ever going to get a chance to try
a NeXT machine unless the price per node (including disk service from a
device with the performance of current technology) reaches $4000-$4500.
This is about the cost (university prices) of a MacIIcx.  I am
sympathetic to the NeXT effort, and their box is certainly better in a
number of respects, but MacII's are available today, and the startup
costs (especially with an installed base of Mac hardware and software)
are considerably lower.

	Tom