shull@WHARTON-10.ARPA.UUCP (05/21/86)
Although your message didn't indicate the number of people that needed to
use this system, I could suggest two alternatives depending on that number:
1) If more than one person must be able to use the system at once,
I strongly recommend that your friend talk to the folks at CPT.
Yep, you heard me, CPT -- the same folks that not too long ago
used cassette tapes for storage. I recently worked with a
client in a similar situation evaluating CPT, IBM, Lanier, DEC,
and Interleaf systems. We concluded that IBM, Lanier and DEC
were stuck in the stone age, while Interleaf was too expensive
for him. CPT provided "what you see is what you get" editing
as well as facilities for producing charts, graphs and drawings
on the page-size, high-resolution display.
The only draw back is lack of the "other" business support packages,
but CPT may have done somethings in this area in the past 9 months.
I believe they were talking about some sort of IBM PC compatibility.
2) If only one user needed access to the system at once, I would
strongly recommend the Interleaf Workstation Publishing System (WPS)
on an Apollo DN3000 with a PC/AT coprocessor card, and either an
Apple or QMS laserprinter with PostScript. I figure the Apollo
at $15,000 with 86MB of disk storage, 2 or 4 MB of RAM, a Motorola
68020 and 68881, built-in LAN if a second station is ever needed,
and a windowing system that the other workstation vendors still
haven't copied successfully. The Apple LaserWriter Plus can be had
for under $6000. WPS goes for $3000. Leaving $1000 for the PC/AT
coprocessor and some accounting software. I have tried to keep the
prices just barely on the safe side, but that last $1000 isn't
really enough.
If I had $15-25K for my document creation system, I would still want more...
Chris
Christopher E. Shull
Decision Sciences Department
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania Shull@Wharton-10.ARPA
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6366 (215) 898-5930
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