Kling%UCI-20B%rand-relay@sri-unix.UUCP (02/02/84)
From: Rob-Kling <Kling%UCI-20B@rand-relay>
In all the excitement about the Apple Macintosh, I believe that
the Lisa 2 ia being unduly ignored.
The Lisa's have a 12" screen which caught my attention immediately.
However, a Lisa running Lisa software won't be cheap. The
interesting possibility is a Lisa 2 running the 3rd party software
(such as Pascal, Lotus 1-2-3, other text editors that allow more
than the 20 pages that MacWrite will hold, etc.)
To run Lisa software you need an additional 512K memory ($1400)
and the software costs an additional $1200 for all six packages.
Thus you need to add $2600 to the base price of the Lisa 2/5 and
Lisa 2/10 to purchase a "workable Lisa." Some of the Lisa software
requires a hard disc. So you have to add a hard disc to a $3500
Lisa 2 if you want to run *all* the Lisa Software.
So.... a Lisa 2/5 w/Lisa software (w/o printer) costs about $7100
So.... a Lisa 2/10 w/Lisa software (w/o printer) costs about $8100
These are *not* attractive prices for home machines.
Unlike Lisa 1, these machines will (soon) run UNIX and "all"
the Macintosh software in an emulation mode.
However, a Lisa 2 (at $3500 base) might be viable for running
other packages than Lisa. The extra $1000 for a Lisa 2 above a Mac
buys 384K more memory (expandable to 1M), a 12" screen (vs. 9"),
extra ports,......
If I were spending this amount of money for a new personal
computer, I would think hard about spending the extra $1000 for a
Lisa 2. (In the next 90 days, Apple is including a printer and 2
software packages w/the Mac for about $3000, thus enlarging the
effective price difference between the Lisa 2 and the Mac to perhaps
$1500.) By next summer, after the promotion ends and some of the 3rd
party software starts coming out, the Lisa 2 may be the best buy to
build a system around. It will perform better and be easier to
expand. The $1000 price difference will add 20% to a $5000
Macintosh system when you add in an 2nd diskette drive, printer and
some software.
The Lisa 2 might be substantially faster than a Mac, in
practice, if one segments some of the additional 384K into a RAM
disc (for programs and/or files). In addition, the Lisa 2 can be
expanded to 1Meg. Apple will provide an expansion of the Mac to
512K when larger chips come out, but at ani additional charge which
is not yet public.
The RAM disc is a cheap way to gain speed without paying for a
hard disc. (In the short run, it will probably be easier to add a
hard disc to a Lisa than to a Mac.) You wonder whether the Mac won't
be fast enough with the M68000. Much depends upon the application.
For many programs, disc-read speeds will limit some of the
performance. This is particularly true for those programs which
limit the size of data-sets/text to the size of the media. Programs
like MacWrite are limited to 20 pages of text so that all the text
and programs are resident in core. Some programs, like Lotus 1-2-3
are core limited, but allow larger (spreadsheet) data sets with more
core. But the programs which let the media limit file size are
frequently reading the disc to move around a file. These designs
will typically run slower on a Mac than the core-limited
applications when they are slowing down to read/write diskettes.
Characterizing the speed of such programs is tricky since
performance for some action depends upon whether the data is
currently in core. If yes, they can be fast; if not, they are
limited by disk read/write speeds. Here a RAM disc is a real aid.
With the 128K Macintosh, a RAM disc is not likely to be viable with
much of the 3rd party software. On the basic Lisa 2 with 512K, this
will be less of a problem.
For institutional purchases of dozens or hundreds of machines,
the economies look different. 100 machines means a price difference
of $100,000. In addition, much depends upon Apple's educational
discounts on the Mac and Lisa.
These comments are semispeculative. However, for individual
use, I would look carefully at a "basic" Lisa 2 before buying a Mac.
Rob Kling
UC Irvine