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 ]