sho@pur-phy (Sho Kuwamoto) (09/30/88)
I know everyone's excited about the NeXT machine, but what are the rumors for Apple's direction in the future? I know they are working on a lot of things: sound, IPC, multitasking, NuGraph, and the fabled rewrite of the system, but I'm interested to know what actual products are on the slate, besides the laptop. At the moment, it seems like the price of an upgrade will be steep, since it would cost me $2000 to upgrade to a Mac //x, but after Apple's production capabilities increase, and after some portion of Apple's market share is threatened by NeXT, the prices might drop. What kind of machine will Apple have out a year and a half from now? (Maybe Apple should start spreading rumors around. These rumors about the NeXT machine seem to have caught the imaginations of a lot of netters...) -Sho
usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) (10/01/88)
In article <1489@pur-phy>, sho@pur-phy (Sho Kuwamoto) writes: >I know everyone's excited about the NeXT machine, but what are the >rumors for Apple's direction in the future? I know they are working >on a lot of things: sound, IPC, multitasking, NuGraph, and the fabled >rewrite of the system, but I'm interested to know what actual products >are on the slate, besides the laptop. At the moment, it seems like Well, a few tidbits I've heard from people follow. I have absolutely no idea how much of this is true, though I suspect it's at least fairly close. Apple is supposed to be working on a true virtual memory, multitasking operating system, which will be more-or-less (99%?) compatible with existing applications (read: a much better MultiFinder). They are putting in a lot of effort on this system (one person I talked to said Apple is putting more effort into their new Mac OS than any other software development). Release date? I don't know, but I suspect late this year or sometime next year. I've also heard they are working on a multiuser system, based around the 68030. I don't know any details, except that it's supposed to support 12 users. My guess is that this also entails having some new bitmapped terminals (on Appletalk?) to communicate with the machine; maybe we'll see 68000-based terminals implementing the user interface, and a 68030 computation/file server. But that's just a guess. Just some rumors...but those are always fun, right? +----------------------------------+------------------------+ | Anton Rang (grad student) | "VMS forever!" | | Michigan State University | rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu | +----------------------------------+------------------------+
ralphw@ius3.ius.cs.cmu.edu (Ralph Hyre) (10/02/88)
In article <744@cps3xx.UUCP> usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) writes: >the 68030. I don't know any details, except that it's supposed to >support 12 users. My guess is that this also entails having some new >bitmapped terminals (on Appletalk?) to communicate with the machine; Appletalk would get hopelessly saturated, wouldn't it? My guess would be multiple display cards and ADB mice and keyboards, and hopefully a 33Mhz (or faster) '030 to spread cycles around. This would amount to about 5-6 times a 7.6Mhz Mac, so I'd feel a little bit uncomfortable putting 12 users on it, unless each display card has a TMS 34020 or something that can reduce bus bandwidth and CPU time to get those pixels out. Maybe a special display card with a little Mac on it would do the trick. (68000 with ~1M 'local' memory, ADB interface, and display board.) I'd think companies would rather put a networked Mac on each desk than have my whole workgroup dependent on a large, expensive, central resource. -- - Ralph W. Hyre, Jr. Internet: ralphw@ius3.cs.cmu.edu Phone:(412) CMU-BUGS Amateur Packet Radio: N3FGW@W2XO, or c/o W3VC, CMU Radio Club, Pittsburgh, PA "You can do what you want with my computer, but leave me alone!8-)"
reeck@lclark.UUCP (David Reeck) (10/04/88)
I was reading the other day (although I don't know where...) that apple was developing a `tower' like machine that would sit in a closet and the computation-intensive applications would transparently swap data between the tower and the personal mac. This would be a very nice solution, letting your personal mac do the screen output while the 33mhz tower does the computat ion for your huge spreadsheets or whatever.... My only questions would be: How transparent is any data swapping over appletalk? Its just not that fast!! My guess is that there is going to be a new networking system or else built in ethernetting (yea!). Now ofcourse this may be a little ways in the future... Dave !tektronix!reed!lclark!reeck
ngg@bridge2.3Com.Com (Norman Goodger) (10/21/88)
In article <1489@pur-phy>, sho@pur-phy (Sho Kuwamoto) writes: > I know everyone's excited about the NeXT machine, but what are the > rumors for Apple's direction in the future? I know they are working > on a lot of things: sound, IPC, multitasking, NuGraph, and the fabled > rewrite of the system, but I'm interested to know what actual products > are on the slate, besides the laptop. At the moment, it seems like > the price of an upgrade will be steep, since it would cost me $2000 to > upgrade to a Mac //x, but after Apple's production capabilities > increase, and after some portion of Apple's market share is threatened > by NeXT, the prices might drop. What kind of machine will Apple have > out a year and a half from now? (Maybe Apple should start spreading > rumors around. These rumors about the NeXT machine seem to have > caught the imaginations of a lot of netters...) I must be missing something, I am sure someone will enlighten me, maybe. But how is NeXT a threat to Apple? NeXT is selling only to the educational market, they are not selling to you or me, unless you are enrolled in one of the schools on the net here. NeXT is not selling to big business, they are not even shipping yet, won't be in quantity for some months. Also I must be missing something else, who but the schools are going to buy this box? Even at $6500, most students I've seen here are moaning that they can't afford a Mac +, let alone a NeXT box. That doesn't exactly produce a lot of sales to me...Another thing to me is obvious short comings, no disk drive, no easy way to transfer data from one system to another, or distribute software...Granted technologically, its way ahead of Apple at the moment, provided it stands up and "really" works when shipped. Since very few have really seen this machine, I think the excitement clouds the issues. the Developement environment has yet to be proven as something that will really provide decent applications. Somehow I don't think besides the press saying that this is a slap in Apple's face, "look what Steve's done", there is no real threat here. At least not for sometime that I can see. I also get this little voice telling me that in the quantities NeXT is talking about, less than 20,000 in the next couple years, thats not exactly going to make a serious market to me. Course all the numbers are speculation. I also think that the $6500 is not going to stay that low, I have a hunch that when it really gets rolling (if it does) Its going to cost alot more than they think to manufacture. Its really hard to predict actual costs until you are really doing it.... As far as Apple rumors. MacWeek has been predicting 2-3 new machines next year, along with an expanded line of printers...only time will tell if either come true. -- Norm Goodger SysOp - MacInfo BBS @415-795-8862 3Com Corp. Co-Sysop FreeSoft RT - GEnie. Enterprise Systems Division