utoddl@uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis) (05/04/90)
In article <297@tlvx.UUCP> sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) writes: > >CD-ROM for a while there, I noticed Toy's 'r' Us carries a $300 [not sure on >price] CD-ROM for one of the games systems. Shoot! Someone make an interface >for the Amiga! :-) Seriously, you can see that CD-ROM is now within reach. And >if it makes better games, I'm all for it.) Yep. Just the other day a friend and I were thinking about the possibility of buying sets of games on a single CD-ROM. How would you like to get a CD-ROM with the following: 1. A killer flight simulator 2. Frogger (with great sound samples) 3. SimCity 4. Populus 5. System Vr4 I think that might go over pretty well. (The blunt instrument for those of you who are 500+ articles behind: Any machine with a CD-ROM drive on it could be running some flavor of UNIX as easily as any game. What a waste--getting a CR-ROM to store 200Meg of sampled engine noise when you could have REAL computing power from the same box. A 500 could do it. Imagine, "Commodore Breaks the $1000 Price Barrier for UNIX Machines-- UNIX in the Home Becomes Real At Last!" Hmmmmmm, Nah!) -- Todd M. Lewis
sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (05/07/90)
utoddl@uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis) writes: >(The blunt instrument for those of you who are 500+ articles behind: > Any machine with a CD-ROM drive on it could be running some flavor > of UNIX as easily as any game. What a waste--getting a CR-ROM to > store 200Meg of sampled engine noise when you could have REAL > computing power from the same box. A 500 could do it. Imagine, > "Commodore Breaks the $1000 Price Barrier for UNIX Machines-- > UNIX in the Home Becomes Real At Last!" Hmmmmmm, Nah!) Er, just because you have the storage space to hold Unix, doesn't mean you can run it. Two problems with unix on CD-ROM: 1> You need an MMU to run unix. 500's and 2000's don't have them. You need a 2500 and up. 2> You can't write to a CD-ROM. Unix does a lot of housekeeping and writes lots of logs and temp files all the time. You need a lot of diskspace for this. Writable diskspace. -- I wanna WARM optical drive! (Write and Read Many) -- John Sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 2400bps. Accessable via Starlink (Louisville KY) sparks@corpane.UUCP | | PH: (502) 968-DISK A virtuous life is its own punishment.
utoddl@uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis) (05/10/90)
In article <1774@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes: >Er, just because you have the storage space to hold Unix, doesn't mean >you can run it. Two problems with unix on CD-ROM: > >1> You need an MMU to run unix. 500's and 2000's don't have them. You need >a 2500 and up. Well, yes and no. To run what you normally think of at Today's UNIX this is true. You could, however, run a flavor of UNIX without the protections of an MMU, but it would probably crash a lot. So what do you want for $1000? > >2> You can't write to a CD-ROM. Unix does a lot of housekeeping and writes >lots of logs and temp files all the time. You need a lot of diskspace for >this. Writable diskspace. Most of the logs can be on /dev/null, and there are disk drives available for writing on an A500. Not a lot of space, but on the other hand, nobody (not even root) could screw up any of the bazillion files which make up UNIX and are never changed. The things you have to customize could live on a floppy (/etc, etc.). It would take some work, and it wouldn't be a workstation, but in 10 years there'l be a thread on the network talking about record sales of early computers and they will say "It doesn't count unless it had a keyboard, a screen, a mouse, and it ran UNIX." (Scatter some :-> around, and giggle as you read this-- nobody is taking this idea as anything other than a toy for the mind.) >I wanna WARM optical drive! (Write and Read Many) Actually, I'm hoping they are obsolete by the time they are affordable. [placing tongue in cheek...] I wanna see something about the size of a credit card, maybe 3 times thicker, with a non-volatile crystal-based memory inside. 32 address and data connections, power, ground, and _read_ finger connections on the side, 10-20ms access times, no moving parts, for under $50. Every computer would come standard with at least two (one for 4Gig RAM, the other for a removable file system) and a socket for a third (for making backups). I just haven't decided on the color yet :-> >-- >John Sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 2400bps. Accessable via Starlink (Louisville KY) >sparks@corpane.UUCP | | PH: (502) 968-DISK >A virtuous life is its own punishment. --Todd
cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (05/10/90)
In article <1990May3.174527.18593@uncecs.edu> (Todd M. Lewis) writes:
->Yep. Just the other day a friend and I were thinking about the possibility
->of buying sets of games on a single CD-ROM. How would you like to get
->a CD-ROM with the following:
...
-> 5. System Vr4
I've been playing System Vr4 here at Sun and need some help on Run
Level 3, how do you kill the RFS Daemon ? I've tried everything, even
a dead cockatrice but it just won't die. Oh, I'm running a +4/+2 GUI
and have the superuser password.
--
--Chuck McManis Sun Microsystems
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: <none> Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
"I tell you this parrot is bleeding deceased!"