🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <8859@portia.Stanford.EDU> underdog@portia.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe) writes:
>My suspicions are confirmed.  The NEXT computer is in trouble.
>

Yawn...here we go again...

>
>NEXT can only be saved if Steve Jobs replaces the 680X0
>with RISC processor like the Sparc chip.  
>

Now, I'm no rabbid NeXT fan, but this is, of course, complete 
rubbish...

While NeXT will certainly do a RISC box (an 88000, more likely
than a SPARC), there is no indication that they are going to roll
over and die if it doesn't happen (that is, there are lots of
reasons why NeXT might fail...RISC isn't nessesarily one of
them).

Sure...the SPARC is faster.  And to someone who doesn't look to
hard, it's cheaper.  But then you go and price adding Sybase,
Allegro CL, Mathematica, Objective-C (tho soon free from GNU), and
all the other software, and that wizzy SPARCstation 1 is pretty
damn expensive...

Then do this...add a 256MB Optical drive to your SS1.  And a DSP
SBus board (oops...there are none...sorry).  And a 400-dpi laser
printer.  Suddenly, your talking about a $25k++ machine (mono).

>
>Too, the extra gadetry (like the DSP chip) on the NEXT is
>unlikely to be used by engineers doing compute-intensive 
>applications.  
>

And maybe I'm crazy, but I bet I can compute a 100x100 FFT faster on
the 56001 than you can on your SAPRC FPU.  That sounds like
something "used by engineers doing compute-intensive applications".

>
>The DSP might help out in making
>a realistic video game; otherwise, its deadweight.
>

Tremendously shortsighted.  This is the kind of logic that says
"why build personal computers...if you want to do *real* computer
work, you have your *wonderful* CDC 6600!  After all, number
crunching is all thats important."

Engineering applications are not the only application for
workstations.  Multi-media applications for one, derive great
benifit from the DSP.  Anything more complicated than simple voice
synthesis really needs DSP-like hardware.  Desktop publishing 
applications for the NeXT are left as an excercise to the reader...

>
>What difference does it make if you can play Beethoven's
>fifth on the NEXT?  
>

Well, none, I suppose, if thats all you can think of to do with
that hardware...

>
>I know.  Steve's going to upgrade the NEXT to a 68040.
>

And the '040 is no slouch...someone else can quote the numbers.

>
>Even then, the Sparc chip set is faster.
>

And the MIPS chip is going to be faster than that (I think)...and 
the Cray 3 faster still...big deal.  Since when does being the
fastest instantly make you the best computer (the Mac being 
case-in-point...vastly superior to other, faster machines in
certain areas).

Sure, I'd like the NeXT to be faster...a lot faster.  But you know
what I'd like more?  I'd like the SS1 to come with a good
database, Mathematica and 256MB of storage at no additional cost.
The NeXT will get faster...the other is a pipe dream.

-- 
       Ken Seefried iii             ...!<anywhere>!uunet!gatech!mm!ken
         MetaMedia, Inc.              ken%mm.uucp@gatech.edu 
           Atlanta, Georgia, USA        obquote: "I feel...like a god..."