🚀 go-pugleaf

  I just got a look at the new offerings from Sun, and it dosen't look 
good for NeXT.  The have a new SPARCclassic and SPARCstation ( gee, i wonder 
where they got the ideas for those names??  )  Here are the number from the 
fact sheet ( certain to start a debate ).  I'v heard all the crap about how 
these ratings are no indication of anything, but I have em' and I'm posting em'.
  Ignore them at you leisure.



	Processor		microSPARC ( tsunami I believe )
	Clock speed		50 Mhz
	SPECint 92		26.4
	SPECfp 92		21.0
	SPECrate int 92		626
	SPECrate fp 92		498.1
	MIPS/MFLOPS		59.1 / 4.6
	Main Memory		16 - 96
	Sbus slots		2

  These numbers are for the classic and the station which seem to be the same 
system except for the color option.  The base config for the clasic is as 
follows,

  
	16 M Ram
	15" color monitor ( 1024 x 768 ) 100 DPI
	207 MB disk
	$4295 ( with discounts for quantity )

  
  and for the station LX

	16 M Ram
	16" color monitor ( a few configs )
	42 NB disk
	ISDN on motherboard
	$7995


  Add to this Tbase10 ( no thicknet ) and 10MB/sec SCSI 2 and you have a pretty 
tidy package.  I had a chance to play with a station LX at the demo at UCSD 
and it seemed real peppy, I neglected to see how huch memory as in it though.

  Is this good news or bad news for NeXT?  I don't see how it could be good news.
  NeXT does have the better UI and other things going for it but this is a fast 
cheap COLOR Sun workstation that is expandable and has taken advantage of the 
latest technologies.  ISDN may be no big deal, but NeXT still dosen't have 
synchronous SCSI, let alone 10MB Sync SCSI.  The 15" color is a bit small to a 
workstation user, but not to some one moving up from a PC.
  
  Given the recent history of NeXT ( overnight OD droping, NeXT Dimention 
problems, No current upgradability for the stations, no word on the future 
of the cube, the ADB upgrade policy ( i.e. sell your old box and buy a new 
one ), no low cost color for the cube, no synchronous SCSI, and I'm sure 
there is more ) all i can say is that given the choice now of a NeXT or 
SUN, I would go with the sun, and I bet a large amount of people will begin 
to purchase the new SUN's over the NeXT's.
  I for one am sad to see it.  I still love my cube, even though It seems 
to be at a dead end.  If the cube dosen't live on I WILL buy one of these 
SUNs to replace it, unless NeXT can get on the ball and make me believe that 
they will have the horsepower, and that I won't have to sell my whole 
system every time I want the new and improved feature, like ADB od sync SCSI.

  What does everybody else think?  Any comments from NeXT?  I didn't think so.

  Zeke
-- 
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= James "Zeke" Dehnert         zeke@mode.css.gov  =
+ SAIC   Geophysical Div.     Eschew Obfuscation  +
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