🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Oct29.043330.30119@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> Nate Sammons <ns111310@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu> writes:
>I am a prospective used-cube buyer, and I want to know if NeXT
>is going to keep the basic design of the cube for the future.
>I want to know, specifically, if NeXT will offer screamin' fast
>motherboards for the cube in the future (I am not really interested
>the specifics of processor, etc, but I want to know if the design
>of the cube is going to continue...  you see, I would be more than 
>just a bit pissed at NeXT if I buy a 25MHz '040 cube, and then six months
>or a year down the line, NeXT reveals the NRW or brick or whatever, 
>and says "OK, guys, here's the *new* cube, enjoy!" and then preceeds
>to show me a motherboard that makes the paint peel off the case from
>sheer power (toung-in-cheek here!) and says that it won't be available
>for the existing cube owners...)

Oh boy, here we go again! I doubt very much that NeXt will keep the basic
design of the Cube, although I feel they should (or if not a Cube then a sphere)for many reasons that have been discussed for what feels like years.
 
So, if you get a 25MHz Cube you can expect to be able to upgrade it to a
33MHz 040 and maybe a faster Motorola processor. This is the official upgrade
route, although I have no doubt that people will provide altenatives, and 
as an example the MO went away from NeXT ( mistake the way they did it, and theyare doing the same thing again with the 030->040 upgrade- not enough notice),
but you can use a nice SCSI 3.5" MO inside the Cube.

The very real disappointment is the ND. It would at this point be nice for
NeXT to have an inexpensive 16 bit colour upgrade for Cube owners, or better
still to just lower the price of the ND:) In any case, soon people will be 
selling ND's and some of us are waiting.
>
>I think, that if I were NeXT (oh what a fun that would be!) I would
>keep the design of the cube...  honestly, it's very good.  Plenty of room
>for large motherboards, and even if they get too big and complex for the
>size of the case (I don't think so, guys), they can always have two cards
>in two of the four slots...  It makes an ideal (wel, very good) server, 
>since it has two full-height, 5.25" drive bays, and has room for 
>expansion cards (of which there are currently few)...  anyway, it's
>a good design.

I agree with you except on the server issue (large at any case). NeXt has 
gone away from that aspect, but that still doesn't take away from the Cube.
It is a very nice server for smaller groups of NeXT's and as you say, the
design is right. Great computer.
>
>Also, I would like to know if anywhere there are plans for
>a cheap (cheaper than the ND!) color board for cubes... what a concept!

Ah...the million dollar question! One day...
>
>Well, off my soap-box for now, but I would like input on the future of
>the cube, since I think the slab is a pretty safe design for NeXT (the
>proverbial "pizza-box" computer that is the mainstay of workstations now.)

The stations are computers. Pretty nice ones at that. They are, however, not
very expandable. Kind of like a MacLC. A computer without slots is often 
viewed as a throw away item. People don't buy stations and expect to have
them upgraded, other than by selling them. That was the role of the Cube,
and almost every vendor has now realized that it is important to retain the
user base. Upgradable, modular computers will increase in popularity. The
worrry that NeXt has to have is that every time someone moves up from a station
they are really looking at the whole market, and there's a (small) chance of
them jumping ship.
 
The sleeper in all of this is the 586. It could change NeXT a lot.

My $2= $1.6US

Philip McDunnough
philip@utstat.toronto.edu