system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (System Admin (Mike Peterson)) (06/22/91)
In the spirit of article <15598@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>, I was going to post the following, fairly seriously: Up For Bid: Apollo DN10000 System Minimum Bid : $5,000 (U.S.) (after all, HP is offering $4,500 :-(, but as further punishment we have buy a HP/Apollo 7x0 that won't (ever) run (Apollo) Domain/OS) ^^^^^^ Qty. Item Name 1 HP APOLLO DN10020 System consisting of the following items: 2 PRISM Central Processor Units 1 64 MB Main Memory 2 VME Disk Controllers 3 760 MB Disks 1 AT-Bus Graphics Controller 1 15"(?) 1024x800 Color Monitor / Keyboard / Mouse 1 VME Ethernet Controller 1 VME Token Ring Controller 1 AT-Bus SCSI Tape Drive Controller and Drive However, we just had a meeting with the HP sales rep, and it seems that (much) better deals are now suddenly available for DN10000 tradeups since the publication of the USENET letter, coincidentally :-) : we have been offered an additional 40% discount on an equivalently loaded 750 on top of the 38% educational discount already in place. In our case, this puts the "value" of our DN10020 at about $23000 (Can), and on top of that, we get to KEEP our DN10020 -- that should tell you something about the re-sale value of DN10000s !!!! -- Mike Peterson, System Administrator, U/Toronto Department of Chemistry E-mail: system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca Tel: (416) 978-7094 Fax: (416) 978-8775
krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (06/24/91)
Actually, the DN10000 trade up program (ie. you keep the machine, plus get an additional 40% off of a series 700) was in the works about the time of the ADUS sys admin conference, as was the price drops in add-on gear for the DN10K (to make up for the lack of the 2X CPU's). The ADUS board of directors meets with HP's workstation division managers at each of our board meetings, and for the last 6 months we have been passing along the message from our members regarding the DN10K. HP's response was this: 1) the 2X CPU upgrade can't be built. The company which makes the CPU/FPU chips can't produce reliable chips. Switching to another company would take 18 months or more and would push the price of the CPU's too high. 2) Apollo didn't sell all that many DN10000's. Building a PA-RISC CPU for the DN100K would be expensive because of the small number of units sold, plus it would not run Domain/OS because of the previous decision to move all new HP platforms to OSF/1. 3) The best HP figured they could do was to offer current DN10K users the choice of A) a cheap switch over to a series 700 for those who wanted to move quickly to OSF/1 b) a cheap life extension to current DN10K machines in the form of additional CPU and memory boards for those users who want to stay with SR10. You get to keep your DN10K when trading "up" to a series 700 so that your current software can run side by side with your new machine until you get it all ported. HP considers it an additional discount. == Dave