cory@gloom.UUCP (Cory Kempf) (10/20/88)
In article <73226@sun.uucp>, lyang%scherzo@Sun.COM (Larry Yang) writes: > An audio CD has as its "format" basically one, long serial spiral > (not unlike its vinyl counterpart). In computer applications, I believe > the disks are usually formatted into wedges (sectors), not unlike its > magnetic counterpart. Thus, along with the ECC overhead, there is the > overhead for formating the sectors, labeling the sectors, etc. A data CD (at least in the standards that I have used) is formatted in a LONG spiral. the spiral is broken down into several blocks, each of which "looks" like it is 2k. In reality, they use some error correction code (ECC) that causes 8 bits to use up 14 bits of space. A CD-ROM holds about 660Mb of data after ECC, or on the order of 1 Gb without the ECC. Unfortunately (at least from what I have heard), the Audio CD's (and CD-ROM's are not compatable with the WORMs or WMRM drives. The Audio CD/CD-ROM work on a laser reflection off of pits in the substrate of the disc. (NB: when refering to CD's, disc is correct, not disk.) -- Cory Kempf UUCP: {decvax, bu-cs}!encore!gloom!cory revised reality... available at a dealer near you.
landman%hanami@Sun.COM (Howard A. Landman) (10/22/88)
In article <169@gloom.UUCP> cory@gloom.UUCP (Cory Kempf) writes: >A data CD (at least in the standards that I have used) is formatted >in a LONG spiral. the spiral is broken down into several blocks, >each of which "looks" like it is 2k. In reality, they use some >error correction code (ECC) that causes 8 bits to use up 14 bits >of space. The 8 to 14 bit encoding has nothing to do with the error correction. It is used to make reading and writing easier since it limits the space between transitions. Thus phase-locked loops stay in sync better (transitions not too far apart), and lasers don't have to switch so fast when writing the CD master (transitions not too close together). The error correction is a CIRC (Cross Interleaved Reed-Solomon Code) which operates on a much larger scale than 8 bits at a time. It also has a much lower overhead than 75%! Howard A. Landman landman@hanami.sun.com UUCP: sun!hanami!landman
dorn@fabscal.UUCP (Alan Dorn Hetzel) (10/26/88)
In article <74011@sun.uucp> landman@sun.UUCP (Howard A. Landman) writes: > >The 8 to 14 bit encoding has nothing to do with the error correction. >It is used to make reading and writing easier since it limits the >space between transitions. ... It also limits the maximum distance between transitions, which is the more important function, actually. This is done to prevent significant DC components in the signal, which would raise hell with portions of the electronics downstream. Dorn
langford@reed.UUCP (Chris Langford) (11/15/88)
Someone asked whether or not the NeXT disks were reliable. I was at a
NeXT demo on friday, and someone there asked the same question. The rep
said that they were having problems with the read laser trashing info
instead of just reading it, but that the problem had been fixed. I have
also heard tell that a large amount of the space on the disks is used for
error correction. Anyone else out there know more? Please notice that
I have directed follow-ups to comp.sys.next.
--
Chris Langford {decvax allegra ucbcad ucbvax hplabs}!tektronix!reed!langford
langford@reed.bitnet | "And to everyone else out there,
| the secret is to bang the rocks
| together, guys." jclee@cory.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Lee) (04/05/91)
The following is NeXT's press release on April 4. In the release it
has 2 figures showing Q1'91 UNIX Workstation Shipments:
SUN 44,000
HP 20,000
DEC 8,000
IBM 12,000
NeXT 8,000
On Professional Workstation Shipments:
SUN 11,000
NeXT 8,000
HP 3,000
DEC 1,000
IBM 1,000
Here's the release:
NeXT SHIPS 8,000 CPUs IN FIRST QUARTER Makes NeXT One of
Leading Professional Workstation Vendors
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 4, 1991 P NeXT Computer,
Inc. today announced that it shipped 8,000 NeXT CPUs during
the first quarter of 1991, which ended March 31. It was
NeXT's first full quarter shipping its new line of worksta-
tions.
All of NeXT's shipments were into the professional
workstation category, making NeXT one of the leading vendors
in this segment. Professional workstations, unlike tradi-
tional scientific/technical workstations, are UNIX worksta-
tions designed for non-technical users.
"In our first full quarter shipping the new systems,
we think NeXT has nearly matched market leader Sun in ship-
ments to the professional workstation segment," said Steven
P. Jobs, president and CEO of NeXT. "Customers are begin-
ning to grasp the benefits of NeXT's concept of 'UNIX for
mere mortals' and they like what they see."
Comparing NeXT's first quarter 1991 with other ven-
dors' most recently reported sales, NeXT tied with Digital
Equipment Corporation in the overall workstation market. In
the professional workstation category, NeXT ran a close
second to market leader Sun Microsystems.
Sixty percent of NeXT's sales were to customers in
business and government and 40 percent were to universities.
More than 30 percent of NeXT's 8,000 CPUs were sold interna-
tionally to customers in Europe and Asia. NeXT coordinates
its European activities through its three subsidiaries in
the United Kingdom, France and Germany. In Asia, Canon,
Inc. is the company's exclusive representative.
Professional Workstations
Professional workstations represent a rapidly emerg-
ing new category of UNIX workstations. Professional works-
tation users require the power, networking and multitasking
capabilities of UNIX workstations, but also need a computer
that runs personal computer-like productivity applications
and is easy to use. These users work in areas such as pub-
lishing, financial services, entertainment/advertising, med-
ical and legal services, government and higher education.
Customers in non-technical fields generally purchase
workstations rather than personal computers for three rea-
sons: to develop mission-critical custom applications; to
run networking-intensive installations; and to run more
powerful versions of productivity applications than are
available for personal computers. In time, NeXT believes,
they will also demand greater interpersonal computing
capabilities to increase group productivity and collabora-
tion.
NeXT computers have the technology that commercial
users are seeking as they migrate to workstation technology.
NeXTstep, NeXT's graphical user interface and application
development environment, offers the most powerful and easi-
est to use environment for custom application development.
NeXT's systems also provide extremely powerful built-in net-
working capabilities P including TCP/IP and both twisted-
pair and thin Ethernet P yet setting up and navigating
around a network on NeXT is extremely simple.
Unlike other workstation vendors, NeXT has a wide
assortment of breakthrough productivity applications, such
as Lotus Improv and WordPerfect (both shipping now). These
applications are superior in functionality to, but compati-
ble with, their versions on other platforms. They also have
the ability to read files by other spreadsheet and word pro-
cessing vendors, thus making them compatible with 80 percent
of the installed base of software. Lastly, NeXT is the only
computer company focusing on interpersonal computing, with
built-in, easy-to-use electronic mail that allows everyone
in an organization to use voice, text and graphics to keep
each other informed.
NeXT's family of professional workstations comprises
the NeXTstation and NeXTcube, which began shipping in
November 1990; NeXTstation Color, which began shipping on
March 12; and NeXTdimension, due to be available to custo-
mers in May. NeXT's first quarter shipment numbers do not
include the two color products. All four systems are based
on Motorola's 68040 microprocessor.
Distribution
One of NeXT's challenges in 1991 is to structure its
distribution strategy to match the quality of its products.
In the first stage of this program, NeXT is rapidly expand-
ing its dealer base in the U.S., putting greater emphasis on
campus resellers in the higher education community, forging
partnerships with more value-added resellers (VARs) and
increasing its direct sales force.
"Along with building credibility for an entirely new
category of computers P professional workstations P NeXT has
also had to take a fresh look at the right distribution
strategies to reach professional workstation customers,"
said Todd Rulon-Miller, NeXT's vice president, sales. " Our
distribution goals are two-fold: to expand our total dis-
tribution capabilities and to choose channels that give us
greater leverage with customers. The changes we've ini-
tiated in 1991 take us a long way toward accomplishing these
goals."
To reach individuals and small- and medium-sized
businesses, NeXT is establishing a network of independent
dealers that are aggressive, technically savvy, owner-
operated retailers with strong regional reputations.
Included in this group will be individually certified Busi-
nessland centers, chosen on a case-by-case basis according
to their track record selling NeXT's professional worksta-
tion products. NeXT expects that these Businessland centers
will make up about 10 percent of its total dealer base.
NeXT's VAR strategy focuses on specific vertical
markets that depend on proprietary custom software, and for
which NeXT is particularly well suited, including publish-
ing, financial services, entertainment/advertising, medical
and legal services. Historically, more than half of all
workstations have been sold through VARs.
To increase its leverage among higher education cus-
tomers P which account for 40 percent of NeXT's total sales
worldwide P NeXT is concentrating more effort on campus
resellers (i.e., bookstores and on-campus computer stores).
The company is focusing on establishing key resellers at
computer-intensive colleges and universities, which are
responsible for about half of all higher education computer
purchases.
Many large corporate customers, as well as many
government organizations and higher education institutions,
prefer to purchase computers directly from vendors instead
of through intermediate channels. NeXT has doubled its
direct sales force in the last six months to better serve
these customers.
NeXT Computer, Inc. designs, manufactures and mark-
ets professional workstations, which combine the power and
networking of today's most advanced workstations with the
ease of use and productivity applications of today's best
personal computers. NeXT's professional workstation systems
promise to enhance the way groups of people work together in
the 1990s. NeXT is headquartered at 900 Chesapeake Drive,
Redwood City, California, 94063.#admiral@m-5.Sun.COM (Michael Limprecht SUN Microsystems Mt. View Ca.) (04/09/91)
In article <?#3Ga72i1@cs.psu.edu>, melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes: > > From comp.sys.next. > > =========================================================================== > From: jclee@cory.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Lee) > Newsgroups: comp.sys.next > Subject: NeXT Press Release > Date: 5 Apr 91 08:37:50 GMT > Reply-To: jclee@cory.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Lee) > Organization: University of California, Berkeley > > > The following is NeXT's press release on April 4. In the release it > has 2 figures showing Q1'91 UNIX Workstation Shipments: > > SUN 44,000 > HP 20,000 > DEC 8,000 > IBM 12,000 > NeXT 8,000 > > On Professional Workstation Shipments: > > SUN 11,000 > NeXT 8,000 > HP 3,000 > DEC 1,000 > IBM 1,000 > > Here's the release: > > NeXT SHIPS 8,000 CPUs IN FIRST QUARTER Makes NeXT One of > Leading Professional Workstation Vendors > > All of NeXT's shipments were into the professional > workstation category, making NeXT one of the leading vendors > in this segment. Professional workstations, unlike tradi- > tional scientific/technical workstations, are UNIX worksta- > tions designed for non-technical users. > > "In our first full quarter shipping the new systems, > we think NeXT has nearly matched market leader Sun in ship- > ments to the professional workstation segment," said Steven > P. Jobs, president and CEO of NeXT. "Customers are begin- > > What marketeze! At least if your going to make up a market segment you could at least think of one where your the leader. Mick ------------------------------------------------------------------- And for those of you who are a big fish in a small pond. The all new SHARKstation 1! Built in ethernet and buoyancy control. SHARKware applications. SUNdunk. The worlds leader in underwater workstations. Why? Because we can. ------------------------------------------------------------------- "I think there's a world market for about 5 computers." - Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board, IBM (around 1948) ------------------------------------------------------------------- uucp: {anywhere}!sun!admiral -------------------------------------------------------------------
jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann) (04/10/91)
In article <11278@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> #admiral@m-5.Sun.COM (Michael Limprecht SUN Microsystems Mt. View Ca.) writes: > In article <?#3Ga72i1@cs.psu.edu>, melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes: > > On Professional Workstation Shipments: > > > > SUN 11,000 > > NeXT 8,000 > > HP 3,000 > > DEC 1,000 > > IBM 1,000 > > > What marketeze! At least if your going to make up a market segment > you could at least think of one where your the leader. > What nonsense. In only a couple of years, NeXT has gone from a bit player to the 2nd biggest workstation seller in its major market -- only a bit behind Sun which has been aiming at this market for years and years. Also, what do you mean by "make up a market segment." Don't you think the professional business market is a valid market segment, clearly differentiated from R&D, computational, etc. markets? This is exactly the market next is aiming at. Yep, Sun outsells them by a long shot in those markets where most users a professional computer types (you know, those who respond to complaints about how bad the Unix command syntax is with "If you don't like the shell, write your own). NeXT, on the other hand, is rapidly catching up with Sun in those markets where ease of use matters. (My one quibble with the figures is the IBM figure. I think the NeXT figures only include Unix boxes, not the many IBM 386 and 486 machines running OS/2 or DOS.) Jim Mann jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com Stratus Computer
scott@mcs-server.gac.edu (Scott Hess) (04/11/91)
In article <4991@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann) writes: In article <11278@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> #admiral@m-5.Sun.COM (Michael Limprecht SUN Microsystems Mt. View Ca.) writes: > In article <?#3Ga72i1@cs.psu.edu>, melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) writes: > > On Professional Workstation Shipments: > > > > SUN 11,000 > > NeXT 8,000 > > HP 3,000 > > DEC 1,000 > > IBM 1,000 > > > What marketeze! At least if your going to make up a market segment > you could at least think of one where your the leader. > What nonsense. In only a couple of years, NeXT has gone from a bit player to the 2nd biggest workstation seller in its major market -- only a bit behind Sun which has been aiming at this market for years and years. Also, what do you mean by "make up a market segment." Don't you think the professional business market is a valid market segment, clearly differentiated from R&D, computational, etc. markets? Well, even if we grant that you can make up a new market (essentially, they did, even if it may be valid - say Sun now makes up a market of a certain type of secrataries of physical scientists, labels it "Professional Research Assistants" and says they massively outsell everyone else in their market - I'd have to quibble), I think it's a wee stretch saying that every one of the NeXTs out there is a "Professional Workstation". Because, the uses we put our NeXTs to on campus look an awful lot like what other schools use their Suns for - ie, upper-level computer science, AI, compilers, and the like. I, for one (I may or may not be counted in that 8,000 - I just now got my machine) do not want to be considered a "Professional Workstation User". Call me a Hacker, that's what I am, more or less. (My one quibble with the figures is the IBM figure. I think the NeXT figures only include Unix boxes, not the many IBM 386 and 486 machines running OS/2 or DOS.) Which is, in essence, the same quibble I have. Later, -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer GAC Undergrad <I still speak for nobody> "Simply press Control-right-Shift while click-dragging the mouse . . ." "I smoke the nose Lucifer . . . Banana, banana."