[comp.sys.amiga.advocacy] How many MIPS do we need?

griffin@frith.egr.msu.edu (Danny Griffin) (04/08/91)

>In article <2wBuZ3w164w@ozonebbs.UUCP> vsolanoy@ozonebbs.UUCP (Victor Solanoy) writes:

>   Personally, the home market doesn't need anything like a 14 mip 68040, a 
>   SPARC-2, or an RS-6000...  most businesses probably don't need it either.  

Why not?!  Something as simple and mundane as Desktop Publishing benefits
greatly from a fast machine!  And many, many people are starting to do
3D raytracing and animation for small but important projects, demonstrations,
what-have-you.  Nothing as fancy as a dedicated graphics junkie or
professional would do with $$$, but still nice stuff.  A 68040 machine 
sitting in your spare bedroom will allow you to do rendering at close
to real time so you don't spend hours, days, weeks on something every
time you change your mind because it didn't turn out exactly the way you
wanted.

-- 
Dan Griffin
griffin@frith.egr.msu.edu

vsolanoy@ozonebbs.UUCP (Victor Solanoy) (04/12/91)

griffin@frith.egr.msu.edu (Danny Griffin) writes:

> >In article <2wBuZ3w164w@ozonebbs.UUCP> vsolanoy@ozonebbs.UUCP (Victor Solano
> 
> >   Personally, the home market doesn't need anything like a 14 mip 68040, a 
> >   SPARC-2, or an RS-6000...  most businesses probably don't need it either.
> 
> Why not?!  Something as simple and mundane as Desktop Publishing benefits
> greatly from a fast machine!  And many, many people are starting to do
> 3D raytracing and animation for small but important projects, demonstrations,
> what-have-you.  Nothing as fancy as a dedicated graphics junkie or
> professional would do with $$$, but still nice stuff.  A 68040 machine 
> sitting in your spare bedroom will allow you to do rendering at close
> to real time so you don't spend hours, days, weeks on something every
> time you change your mind because it didn't turn out exactly the way you
> wanted.
> 
> -- 
> Dan Griffin
> griffin@frith.egr.msu.edu

 
You seem to have missed the point...  there are people who use computers, 
and those that just use computers.... if you are getting at what I'm trying 
to say.
 
The majority of people who do use the computers in the here and now do their 
homework on it, do simple tasks on it, etc....  In other words, the everyday 
Joe really doesn't have a need for the extreme computation speed for 
raytracing and graphics work.  As far as graphics goes, I think the majority 
of computer users use their computers for gaming... which may explain why 
the gaming market is one of the largest.
 
I do understand that possibly in the near future (or sooner) that computers 
will change to be faster and better than it's predecessors.  That's been the 
case so far....  it really wouldn't make any sense to have a world of AT 
class machines (or Amiga 3000 class) and reintroduce the old IBM PC (or the 
C-128).
 
Victor

griffin@frith.egr.msu.edu (Danny Griffin) (04/13/91)

vsolanoy@ozonebbs.UUCP (Victor Solanoy) writes:

>griffin@frith.egr.msu.edu (Danny Griffin) writes:

>> >In article <2wBuZ3w164w@ozonebbs.UUCP> vsolanoy@ozonebbs.UUCP (Victor Solano
>> 
>> >   Personally, the home market doesn't need anything like a 14 mip 68040, a 
>> >   SPARC-2, or an RS-6000...  most businesses probably don't need it either.
>> 
>> Why not?!  Something as simple and mundane as Desktop Publishing benefits
>> greatly from a fast machine!  And many, many people are starting to do

>The majority of people who do use the computers in the here and now do their 
>homework on it, do simple tasks on it, etc....  In other words, the everyday 
>Joe really doesn't have a need for the extreme computation speed for 
>raytracing and graphics work.  As far as graphics goes, I think the majority 
>of computer users use their computers for gaming... which may explain why 
>the gaming market is one of the largest.

The majority of computer users don't know what working with an inexpensive
powerful compuer is like, either.  Even people who are old PC users don't
catch on to multitasking right away sometimes.  Give people fast computers
and good software and see what happens.  One thing that benefits users are
these user-friendly GUIs.  You also said most businesses don't need a fast
computer, either.





-- 
Dan Griffin
griffin@frith.egr.msu.edu

Harvey_Taylor@mindlink.bc.ca (Harvey Taylor) (04/15/91)

In <y829Z1w164w@ozonebbs.UUCP>, vsolanoy@ozonebbs.UUCP (Victor Solanoy) writes:
|
|griffin@frith.egr.msu.edu (Danny Griffin) writes:
|
|>>In article <2wBuZ3w164w@ozonebbs.UUCP> vsolanoy@ozonebbs.UUCP (Victor Solano
|>>
|>> Personally, the home market doesn't need anything like a 14 mip 68040, a
|>> SPARC-2, or an RS-6000...  most businesses probably don't need it either.
|>
|> Why not?!
|>  [...]
|
| You seem to have missed the point...  there are people who use computers,
| and those that just use computers....

    For that matter, they could probably do it by pencil, paper & slide rule.
 Your statement hangs by the criteria of need. I am reminded of Dylan's line
 "She knows what you need, but I know what you want." I would like a massively
 parallel optical computer with a neural interface, please. [Of course, if
 CBM makes it, it will just be a games machine.]

    On the other claw, don't overestimate present hardware.

 "While today's digital hardware is extremely impressive, it is clear
 that the human retina's real time performance goes unchallenged.
 Actually to simulate 10 milliseconds of the complete processing of
 even a single nerve cell from the retina would require the solution
 of about 500 simultaneous nonlinear differential equations 100 times
 and would take at least several minutes of time on a Cray supercomputer.
 Keeping in mind that there are 10 million or more such cells interacting
 with each other in complex ways, it would take a minimum of 100 years of
 Cray time to simulate what takes place in your eye many times each
 second." - John K. Stevens
 Byte, Page 287, April 1985, Reverse Engineering the Brain

    -het

 "This is not the world. This is a sophisticated AI simulation of a
  bunch of nerds running around and complaining at each other." -D.Zerkle

 Harvey Taylor      Meta Media Productions
 uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor
            a186@mindlink.UUCP