🚀 go-pugleaf

James Hague writes

> Now think about what the 486 is capable of.  There are very few
> people who need that sort of power. It is mostly a marketing thing;
> ....  A well-designed machine with
> properly balanced subsystems would be preferrable to a lackluster
> box with a screamingly fast CPU.
> 

Agreed that a there's no point in getting a blazing cpu and saddling  
it with slow i/o and graphics.
But i fear that the need for power is not just a marketing thing.   
Software requirements expand to fill the power available.  Most of  
today's software will simply not run adequately on a 286; some of it  
is borderline on a 386.  If you want to run that software, and newer  
one on the way, you'll need more power.  If you want a nicer  
interface, you'll need more power.

In a few years, we'll be discussing whether people 'really need' a  
986; after all, a 300MHz 886 is perfectly adequate...


--
-
Stefano Pagiola
Food Research Institute, Stanford University
spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu (NeXTMail encouraged)
spagiola@FRI-nxt-Pagiola.stanford.edu (NeXTMail encouraged)