benoni@ssc-vax.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) (03/01/88)
Given the discussion and speculation about A/UX on the Mac II and it's pricey-ness (17K from earlier discussion - with like configurations) here is some news on the much speculated Sun 386 machines (from the pages of ComputerWorld and InfoWorld) : Sun 386 (Roadrunner) RR-150 RR-250 --------------- -------------------- * 20 MHz 80386, * 25 MHz 80386 * 80387 fpu, * 80387 fpu, * 80385 cache controller * 80385 cache controller * Rated at 3.5 MIPS * Rated at 5.0 MIPS * built-in SCSI controller * built-in SCSI controller * built-in Ethernet adapter * built-in Ethernet adapter * 3 AT-Bus slots * 3 AT-Bus slots * 1 XT-Bus slot * 1 XT-Bus slot * 1 3.5" (1.44Mbyte) floppy * 1 3.5" (1.44Mbyte) floppy * built-in hypertext help * built-in hypertext help * 15 inch monitor (mono) * 19 inch monitor (mono) * 4 Mbyte RAM * 8 Mbyte RAM * 91 Megabyte disk (diskless) (speculated at $7,100) Speculated at $22,400 (91 Mbyte disk) (speculated at $9,100) optional : * 19 inch monitor $2100 * 91 Mbyte disk $2100 (diskless) (speculated at $7,100) Speculated at $22,400 Apparently these prices are rough and are discountable by 50% (according to the article) for large (educational) customers. Both are capable of running both SunOS Unix and MS-DOS, "MS-DOS can be run in one or more Unix windows". MS-DOS software supposedly used CGA graphics, DOS applications can apparently support VGA if the proper VGA card is used. The articles stated that Sun is apparently looking at retail distribution. Please note Sun has NOT announced these products and the articles seem to be a result of demos given to Universities. There are still alot of open questions but these seem like interesting machines...no mention of resolution of the monitors (my thought would be 1152x900 monochrome monitor - like the Sun 3/50 however this may be faulty logic given the PC - connection, dunno). No mention if color versions would emerge...tho' this could be their new low-end...just above their 3/50. Given how these things go I would expect changes by release time. It will be interesting to see how the A/UX Mac II fares against the Sun 386 or 3/50 or 3/60 ?? I would hope the Apple folks would be smart enough to redesign the Mac II to include DMA and make the battle a bit more even. ------------------------------------- My opinions are my own. No one else would have them.