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From: rick@sbcs.UUCP (Rick Spanbauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: NFS on the amiga, or, Amiga does this already
Message-ID: <474@sbcs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 4-Jul-87 13:23:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: sbcs.474
Posted: Sat Jul  4 13:23:31 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Jul-87 20:57:18 EDT
References: <1521@botter.cs.vu.nl> <312@louie.udel.EDU>
Organization: Computer Science Dept, SUNY@Stony Brook
Lines: 48

> and 'real world' companies. How about a cheap ether board like
> the ones we hear rumors about for PCs? 

Depends on what you call cheap - the Ameristar Ethernet board costs
around $699 for the A2000.  Note that what you are actually interested
in is SYSTEM cost:

	Sun PC-NFS software	~$350
	3Com ethernet card	 $545  (when purchased in Feb '86)
				-----
				~$900

I also recall seeing a blurb stating that the MAC-II Ethernet card
is about $800 with no software.

Compare the above with the Ameristar NFS package (for the A2000):

	Board + software:	$800

Of course, all of the above figures neglect the cost of connection,
which ranges from a few bucks for cheapernet to a few hundred bucks
for a xcvr + xcvr drop cable + tech time to insert xcvr in thick
ethernet.  

The current price of the Amiga ethernet card is driven primarily by the 
cost of the Lance chipset (> $100 as of this writing) and voltage inverter 
(~$20) required for DC isolation in cheapernet.  If the Lance chipset
ever sees plastic (and therefore comes down in price), you may see the
the Ameristar board drop in price a bit.

The other reason why Amiga ethernet boards cost more is the same reason 
Amiga memory boards, disk controllers, etc all cost more: lack of volume. 
At last count, the installed base of PC's was up somewhere in the millions 
of systems - compared to a few hundred thousand units for the Amiga.  Any
PCB is going to cost more if you're producing only 10's of pieces at a time.

Ameristar is trying to offset the hardware price differences by pricing their
software as low as possible to keep overall system costs in line with 
comparable IBM PC systems solutions.  The reasoning is that if they present 
Amiga systems solutions that cost roughly the same as IBM PC based solutions, 
AND provide greater functionality, this will win sales with folks who have the 
option to run on either platform.  This in turn will drive up volume, and 
drive down costs.  

						Rick Spanbauer


PS. I'm not neutral w.r.t. Ameristar - I designed the Ethernet card..