barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) (05/27/91)
NeXT makes a big appearance in the latest (June 1991) BYTE magazine. First, they have a nice pic of Steve Jobs in the "News" column, announcing the receent good sales figures. Then, they have a big article comparing the major GUI's, in which NeXTStep is presented quite favorably (compared to Windows, Mac, OS/2, GeoWorks, Amiga, Motif and Open Look). Of course, these GUI's are very different, and the purpose of the article is to informally compare them on a variety of aspects (user issues, networkability, developer issues, apps available, resource requirements, etc). The author doesn't go so far as to pick a ``winner'', but its clear that, other issues aside, he feels NeXTStep is the superior GUI (which would be difficult not to conclude, given all the industry awards its won, compared to none for the others). His recommendation is that those not already tied to a machine, or who want a GUI for unix, seriously check out NeXT. The only downside mentioned for NeXTStep (aside from it running only on NeXT and IBM RS/6000) is the lack of apps---but the author correctly points out that the Apps that do exist are all true NeXTStep apps (making full use of the NeXTStep toolkits), unlike many of the Apps for Motif, Open Look,etc. Finally, there is the long awaited BYTE review of NeXTStation, which is very positive. It blows away 386 and 486 boxes on BYTE's benchmarks, as well as the Mac fx and Sun IPC. The author doesn't even bother to make a detailed price comparison to other comparable machines, becasue he does some rough calculations that show similarly functional Mac, PC, or Sparc would cost at least twice as much (list prices). The overall tone of the article is that NeXT has made up for the sins of the original cube, and that there is no comparable buy in the high end PC or low end workstation market. So, finally NeXT gets some good PR from BYTE (which normally writes as if an "ALR FlexCache 486" PC clone were the state of the art in computers)---that should make a bit of bump in their already healthy sales figures. PS: The lead story in the News column is on the ACE Consortium, which consists of Microsoft, a bunch of PC cloners, and DEC, and whose stated goal is to define an Industry Standard Workstation, in order to ease future networking and software engineeering. Since MicroSoft is one of the leaders, its no surprise that the standard CPUs have been chosen as Intel 386/486/...(hey, quit laughing :-) and MIPS 64 bit RISC chips (a thankful DEC influence). Their standard OS's include SCO UNIX, and, I think, Sys V (?). But, on to the punchline: one of the key networking issues they want to address is easy networking of their workstations with machines running DOS, Windows and OS/2! (ha, ha, ha, .... :-) I think I once had a nightmare about such a network :-) O' Brave New Workstation! :-) -- Barry Merriman UCLA Dept. of Math UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet) barry@arnold.math.ucla.edu (NeXTMail)
gillham@andrews.edu (Andrew Gillham) (05/27/91)
In article <1991May27.033207.28372@math.ucla.edu> barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes: > >NeXT makes a big appearance in the latest (June 1991) BYTE >magazine. > >First, they have a nice pic of Steve Jobs in the "News" >column, announcing the receent good sales figures. [.. interesting stuff deleted ..] >So, finally NeXT gets some good PR from BYTE >(which normally writes as if an "ALR FlexCache 486" PC clone were the >state of the art in computers)---that should make a bit of bump >in their already healthy sales figures. Some magazine (info-world, pc-week?) was discussing the next on the back page. They started out discussing a (forbes?) article that mentioned the higher volumes of Next and attributed most of them to Upgrade boards and heavily discounted educational and developer sales. The (info-world or pc-week) article went on to say some good things about the next and such.. -Andrew -- =========================================================================== Andrew Gillham Andrews University (gillham@andrews.edu)
crum@alicudi.usc.edu (Gary L. Crum) (05/28/91)
In article <1991May27.033207.28372@math.ucla.edu> barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes: > PS: The lead story in the News column is on the ACE Consortium, > which consists of Microsoft, a bunch of PC cloners, and DEC, > and whose stated goal is to define an Industry Standard Workstation, > in order to ease future networking and software engineeering. Here's the ACE member to watch: Silicon Graphics. (That name used to be spelled SiliconGraphics, without the space.) In my opinion, computers from NeXT and SiliconGraphics and the companies themselves are similar in many high-level ways. Both offer powerful and elegant platforms which are particularly good for developers (including science research groups not developing applications to sell). And, both Steve Jobs and Jim Clark seem to have the vision of making new types of technology very accessible. Both NeXT and Silicon Graphics seem to be ready to introduce multiprocessing in relatively low-end systems ($3,000 - $10,000) within a year -- multiprocessing with a UNIX-like system call interfaces for controlling multiple processors, that is. The Silicon Graphics operating system, IRIX, currently runs on multiprocessor systems (up to 8 processors) that cost around $100,000. NeXT Mach is probably not too far behind IRIX even though NeXT does not currently support a multiprocessor configuration. Other companies (BBN, Encore?) have used Mach for multiprocessor UNIX-like systems. Does anyone know of other companies is as good positions as NeXT and Silicon Graphics to offer multiprocessor systems (with a single system call interface for all processors) for particularly low prices? Are some already available? Gary
waltrip@capd.jhuapl.edu (05/28/91)
In article <1991May27.033207.28372@math.ucla.edu>, barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes: [...interesting material about BYTE reviews of NeXTstation, NeXTstep deleted (yea, BYTE!)...] > > PS: The lead story in the News column is on the ACE Consortium, > which consists of Microsoft, a bunch of PC cloners, and DEC, > and whose stated goal is to define an Industry Standard Workstation, > in order to ease future networking and software engineeering. > Since MicroSoft is one of the leaders, its no surprise that > the standard CPUs have been chosen as Intel 386/486/...(hey, quit > laughing :-) and MIPS 64 bit RISC chips (a thankful DEC influence). > Their standard OS's include SCO UNIX, and, I think, Sys V (?). I've posted some stuff about ACE consortium previously. Their standard OS's include OS/2 with Windows 3.0 (for the Intel architectures) and SCO UNIX for the MIPS architecture. Note, however, that the SCO UNIX is based on DEC's implementation of OSF/1 (which is based on Mach [version 2.5, I believe]). I believe there are very strong reasons why this would be a good choice for NeXT as it will be a very easy platform to produce at low cost; will be possible to leverage off of all of the work that will be done to produce the standard OS while permitting NeXT software engineers to concentrate on the things that make NeXT unique (DSP and NeXTstep, for instance). > But, on to the punchline: one of the key networking > issues they want to address is easy networking of their workstations > with machines running DOS, Windows and OS/2! (ha, ha, ha, .... :-) > > I think I once had a nightmare about such a network :-) Well, UNIX networks ARE nicer, but LAN Manager has to be taken seriously as well. So does OS/2 in its latest (and planned) incarnations (not all the smart people are working for Steve Jobs, you know; for instance, you're not and I'm not ;^) In fact, so long as you're not the poor soul who has to develop applications for it, there's really nothing terribly wrong with Window on OS/2 on a 486 platform (and even the development environment's improving with third party tools continually being offered). So while the NeXT's better in our opinion, the other people ain't standin' still either. Given NeXT's limited resources, I hope they find a way to concentrate on the things that them better. Joining the ACE consortium and adopting the MIPS architecture and the OSF/1 implementation might be a way to accomplish this. If the ACE consortium is committed to Mach 3.0 (no AT&T kernel code) and to real-time and multi-processor implementations, it looks like it would be irresistible. These things aren't NeXTstep so why should NeXT waste resources working on them? c.f.waltrip Internet: <waltrip@capsrv.jhuapl.edu> Opinions expressed are my own.
thomsen@spf.trw.com (Mark R. Thomsen) (05/30/91)
Barry Merriman writes NeXT makes a big appearance in the latest (June 1991) BYTE magazine. So, finally NeXT gets some good PR from BYTE (which normally writes as if an "ALR FlexCache 486" PC clone were the state of the art in computers)---that should make a bit of bump in their already healthy sales figures. It is good to see some reasonably good press for NeXT. That hack job in Forbes last month was pitiful. However Forbes does not influence as much 'conventional wisdom' as Byte, so let's us hope that the balance is still slightly positive for NeXT. Sales continue healthy says my contacts. NeXTstation Color is actually selling neck and neck with NeXTstation. NeXTdimension is in the chute and will boost sales again. Most people I talk to are glad of the NeXT they bought (with nits), so the word of mouth seems positive. Actually, sales as a rate (machines/month) have approached Sun's rate in late '86, early '87. I wonder of the acceleration is closing. I have noticed that my local Sun rep is paying much closer attention to our NeXTs, what we are doing with them, and why we buy them instead of Sun. (TRW was reputed to be the #1 sales channel a year or two ago for Sun, so I can see why we might get attention now). Gary L. Crum writes And, both Steve Jobs and Jim Clark seem to have the vision of making new types of technology very accessible. Speaking of SGI and NeXT in the same breath, BTW, reminds me that Norm Miller was the key engineer in SGI's Personal Iris design and early NeXTdimension work (circa 1989). He deserves a round of applause for two reasonably affordable color systems with good dimensions (pixels, bits per pixel), together with the other engineers who made vision into something we can buy. There is not much offering as much as SGI and NeXT for the price (though NeXT has it all over in software on top of the OS). Mark R. Thomsen
edwardj@microsoft.UUCP (Edward JUNG) (05/31/91)
Gary L. Crum writes: > >Does >anyone know of other companies is as good positions as NeXT and >Silicon Graphics to offer multiprocessor systems (with a single system >call interface for all processors) for particularly low prices? Are >some already available? Competitive with Silicon Graphics in multiprocessor systems today (in the mid-priced range) are a bunch of companies, including NCR and Data General. There are also a number of "super-microcomputers" that first came out three years ago, such as the Stardent and Apollo (now HP/Apollo) DN-100x0 in the $70k+ range. There are are also a number of non-symmetric multiprocessor machines available, the best-selling one probably being the Compaq SystemPro. There are two standardization efforts for multiprocessing Unix: Unix Systems Labs/Unix International and Open Software Foundation. The former is based upon Unix v4, the latter upon Mach 3. I am not aware of any machines with symmetric multiprocessing that are available in the $10,000 price range. There are a number of challenges in making symmetric multiprocessing hardware perform well (alternatively the issue might be regarded as a compiler and scheduler optimization problem) without resorting to sophisticated (and often expensive) memory, interrupt, etc. architectures. For this reason the low-end machines are generally fast uniprocessors, or have multiprocessors that are assymmetric (sound, graphics, etc.). -- Edward Jung Microsoft Corp. My opinions do not reflect any policy of my employer.