ANKGC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Anil Khullar) (08/11/89)
I was scanning the "Digital Review" which talked about an annoucement
about a 25 MIP IBM box that would be released soon (Oct announcement...)
and wondered if it would be a souped up RT ?
The reason I ask this is simple. I have to buy a BOX (Unix ) that would
exclusively do some graphics transformation for my research project, and I have
a deadline to get it in beginning of FALL semester.
I would appreciate comments from the knowleged folks out there....
Thanks
-anileli@spdcc.COM (Steve Elias) (08/11/89)
In article <2462ANKGC@CUNYVM> ANKGC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Anil Khullar) writes: >I was scanning the "Digital Review" which talked about an annoucement >about a 25 MIP IBM box that would be released soon (Oct announcement...) >and wondered if it would be a souped up RT ? i believe it will be far more than an RT. the microprocessor will be similar, but a true 801. blazingly fast. i'm very curious as to what IBM has done in order to get 25 Mips out of this chip -- if it is the chip i think it is. if this machine is truly less than $10k, would somebody please hide my credit cards! -- ...... Steve Elias (eli@spdcc.com);(6178591389);(6178906844) {} /* */
adam@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Adam Feigin) (08/11/89)
In article <2462ANKGC@CUNYVM> ANKGC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Anil Khullar) writes: >I was scanning the "Digital Review" which talked about an annoucement >about a 25 MIP IBM box that would be released soon (Oct announcement...) >and wondered if it would be a souped up RT ? > I've seen the beastie, although due to non-disclosure agreement(s) between myself, Cornell University, and IBM, I am unable to comment AT THIS TIME. I might be able to say more when I get back from vacation at the end of this month, though. How's that for making your mouths water ???? AWF ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: feigin@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu Adam Feigin UUCP: {backbones}!cornell!batcomputer!feigin Workstation Consultant MaBell: (607) 255-3985 Cornell National Supercomputer Facility
butcher@g.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Lawrence Butcher) (08/13/89)
I personally have no info about the RT successor. Just for fun, let me
imagine what a machine MIGHT cost if it were made in medium volume from
commodity parts and deliverable some time during 1990. These are my
uninformed predictions about next year's back-of-Byte prices.
Processor I860 @ 33MHz $500.00
Memory 8MBytes @ $10/Mbit $750.00
Display (>> VGA) $500.00
Disk (Single Ended SCSI >=100 MB) $750.00
Ethernet $250.00
Ugly box, loud power supply, PCB $250.00
Unix license, docs $500.00
--------
Total $3500.00
These prices at first glance seem low, but I am sure that IBM could combine
volume buying and it's internal manufacturing skills to do better in all
cases. I do not agree that the price should be marked up 30% so that
someone's younger brother who works at Computerland can sell it to me. The
rumored $10,000 price for the new RT seems low in comparison to present IBM
prices, but it might be high compared to future end-user subassembly prices.
I have an idea of the cost of components, but I also know the value of
owning a "standard" machine. As an individual considering the purchase of a
computer, I would be willing to buy a high volume machine from IBM instead
of one from an upstart computer company which is 1/5th or 1/20th the size of
IBM, or for that matter from a Japanese company selling at cost to gain
market presence, but only if the IBM price is competitive with the others.
I don't mean this message to be disrespectful to IBM. Exactly the opposite.
I would love to help IBM set a price for their new machine which would
insure a modest margin, while capturing for them a huge chunk of the
workstation market. I hope that IBM reveals aggressive pricing as well as
aggressive technology. Christmas is not so far away.
Lawrence Butcherroot@blender.UUCP (Herb Peyerl) (08/15/89)
What I've heard about the new IBM box is kind of interesting though I'm
not sure of the validity of it... I've heard it from several different
sources however so it may be true... What I've heard is that there are
actually 2 new machines announced. One is a <$10K desktop RT with aboUt
the same compute power as a 6151-115.. I guess sort of an RT-Jr.... Then
another machine which will sport MicroChannel instead of standard AT bus
architecture in order to support the multi-processor ability. Apparently
the machine is quite fast with one processor, and up to 4 extra processors
can be added.. The 25 mip figure was bounced around but I don't know if
that was for all processor's installed or 25 mips/processor... Although
mips are sort of misleading for a RISC processor I would imagine.
Apollo's DN10000 is supposed to be 25Mips/processor.... However misleading
that is with respect to real performance...
Anyways, that's what I've heard...
--
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