thor@stout.ucar.edu (Rich Neitzel) (02/02/90)
In view of the recent announcement of HP's 68040 system, I'm curious to hear what Sun-3 user's think about the apparent demise of the Sun-3 line. The 25 MHz 040 is about equal to the SS1 and Mot is claiming a 40 MIPS 50 MHz version by the end of the year. In my application domain, we have a lot of investment in the 680x0 family, not only for UNIX, but for realtime processors. Having the development host run the same OBJECT code is a big help in the development cycle. For one, we can use all the compilers, assemblers, etc. on the host and realtime code without the need for cross-compilers, etc. Further, we can run much of the realtime code on the UNIX system for testing using the SAME object code - no seperate recompiles just for UNIX. Having to move to SPARC means losing all that. Further, we have a wealth of UNIX-only source code that would require us to remove the existing binaries, recompile, reinstall, etc. If i'm going to have to spend several days doing this, maybe I'll just think about another vendor (DEC's PDP11 to VAX nightmare). If I can find one that isn't intending to orphan systems to force users onto a captive platform, maybe it's byebye Sun. Yes, that's right - I don't believe that Sparc is an "open" platform - sure anyone can make it if they can get the license, but for software they all are dependent on Sun. So Sun controls the SPARC market with its lock on OS software. Maybe in the future there will be a non-Sun OS for SPARC, but don't hold your breath. Further, SPARC is still in the same fuzzy area as UNIX itself- the claim is that it is open to all, but in truth it is the property of a single vendor. There is no guarntee that Sun will not change things to favor itself if it finds that other chip/system makers are beating its pants off.