marc@porsche944.Eng.Sun.COM (Marc Schneider) (08/21/90)
In a recent artical of Personal Workstation (aug edition) the following comments were made: >Page 60. Multimedia > > "...But there isn't the same creative ferment in Sun's multimedia > efforts as in the PC and Mac worlds. > One problem for developers is while low-end Sun machines are > inexpensive they lack the VME slots needed for multimedia. > The best machines for authoring are priced and configured as > servers rather than end-user workstations. "An authoring-ready" > machine with video acceleration (a necessity on Sun Machines) > and several VME slots costs almost $40,000. At the same time > Unix software and peripherals are far from cheap. > CPU performance is also mediocre. A SPARC CPU chip is slower > than a 486 or other RISC chip. Video hardware is available for > Sun machines but multimedia software is lacking. Robust > HyperCard-type authoring, or even animation products are not > available for the SPARCstation; even Wavefront Advanced > Visualizer, which is nearly ubiquitous on workstations, is > missing on Sun. Audio support is good, with an AMD sound chip > built into most workstations, but not up to the level of NeXT's > DSP chip. > ....... More sun bashing...." Personaly, I would suggest that the author contacts Sun next time before writting anymore articals about our multi-media efforts. Clearly the author has no idea as to Sun's efforts in this area. I would also like to point out that SPARC processors will continue to grow in power quicker over time then their CISC counterparts ever will, so if you want to wait for the 80586 for more MIPS, be my guest... Also I suggest the author check the bus specs for VME. I think he will find that S-bus far outperforms VME in speed and bandwidth. The trick is not a faster/wider bus for video, but real-time data compression. It's a very bad idea to misuse a general perpose I/O bus by hogging it with a a video stream. This might be acceptable to a MAC or IBM due to their machines lack of multi-tasking capabiltiy and propriatary OS, but this is very bad news in a multi-tasking UNIX environment. And lastly, I would like to point out to you all that the SPARCstation is a new machine. Give it time, after all, the PC took almost 5 years to get to a point where there was enough software and install base to drive the total system cost down to it's current levels. If you realy want to speed up the process, buy more SPARCstations! The greater the install base, the more the software becomes available (and cheeper). In future Personal workstation, call us first before writting. No one likes bad information. -Marc Schneider Sun Microsystems, Inc. Disclaimer: My opinions are my own and are not that of Sun Microsystems, Inc. ********************************************************************* * * * * Marc T. Schneider * "By not saying no to facism, you're * * Sun Microsystems, Inc. * saying yes" -Consolidated * * 2550 Garcia Ave MS 21-01 * * * Mountain View, Ca 94043 * Ph:(415) 336-6747 Fax: (415) 336-3936 * * * * *********************************************************************