From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:editor-people Newsgroups: fa.editor-p Title: Re: Improved support for Emacs in TOPS-20. Article-I.D.: ucb.1359 Posted: Tue Jun 15 02:32:47 1982 Received: Wed Jun 16 03:57:07 1982 >From Goldberg@RUTGERS Tue Jun 15 02:28:29 1982 A $4000 micro would serve certain functions fairly well in a distributed environment, such as supplying the user interface to a text editor/processor. But machines in that class would not satisfy the computing needs of most users of large timeshared machines. Larger machines, such as those based on the Motorola 68000 cpu have greater potential to fill this need, due to their large address space. However, when you add the necessary peripherals to make an independent computer, they get much more expensive than $4000, unless you are satisfied with slow disks and a small physical RAM. If an appropriate Ethernet connection is available, it may be possible to use some sort of shared disk server to reduce the price of the individual machines, which now don't need as fancy (or possibly any) disk. However, this configuration is then distributed and not a stand-alone micro. Bob ------- [ Editor's note: I think that comments about distributed vs. standalone word processing systems that focus on hardware considerations would probably fit better on WORKS rather than EDITOR-PEOPLE, though I will continue to publish submissions on the topic as long as they do not completely duplicate WORKS. If you are interested in discussion of work stations, send mail to PLEASANT@RUTGERS asking to be included on the WORKS mailing list. /JQ ]