wb1j+@andrew.cmu.edu (William M. Bumgarner) (02/19/90)
OD: Yes, it is slower than a hard drive. IN the early version of the OD-only system, it was a serious complaint that the system was too slow. This was because swapping to/from an OD was a real dog. The solution; add a small high speed hard drive to be used as swap space (and /tmp). Everything else is done from OD-- the only real noticeable difference is when first starting an application; beyond that, the system performance is excellent (this isn't entirely true when compiling stuff-- you really do need a HD for an effective development environment [and the OD allows you to save every code revision]). At $50 for 256megs of very durable (I have put that one to the test), relatively high speed, removable, RWEraseble media, the OD can't be beat (look at the most popular removable media in the Mac world; the Syquest based drive-- at $70 for 45 megs of storage that isn't nearly as durable... OD systems are becoming popular, but are still very expensive and incompatible with a lot of the Mac OS). Remember also that this is first generation technology-- the future can only be better/faster/higher-density. IBM: I was at that presentation also. The POWER (remember, it isn't power and you don't buy an IBM; its POWER and you invest in IBM :-) series is impressive-- it is definitely going to make a nice addition to the clusters and to the university in general. But it is far from the integrated workstation/personal computer that the NeXT is. The POWER series were designed with a networked, centrally administrated market in mind. Software: 1.0a is up and running on the cubes. If/when a new cube comes along-- the system software on it will be 1.0a or higher. There is a huge difference between creating system software and adding support for a new machine. If the code is done right (and the design of the system and the philosophy behind it would indicate that it was done right), then new hardware should be fairly easy to support. I would imagine that the main work would be in getting mach to run on the new platform-- that doesn't seem too difficult; they do it around here every other day, it seems. Beyond that, it is mostly recompiles... BTW: I'm not trying to slam the POWER series-- it is a neat and powerful set of machines. But the markets for the POWER series and the markets for the NeXT are very different; there is some overlap, but the POWER series/IBM hasn't 'killed' NeXT. Also: It was an IBM presentation by IBM people; I can remember presentations in regards to the PCjr that had as much hype. Wait until the ITC slams the machine around a bit more before making a final judgement. b.bumgarner | Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own. wb1j+@andrew.cmu.edu | I officially don't represent anyone unless I NeXT Campus Consultant | explicity say I am doing so. So there. <Thpppt!> "I ride tandem with the random/Things don't run the way I planned them..."