Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Graphics info wanted for the NeXT..
Message-ID: <116900008@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 15 Aug 89 14:46:00 GMT
References: <10727@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Lines: 28
Nf-ID: #R:boulder.Colorado.EDU:10727:p.cs.uiuc.edu:116900008:000:1349
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Aug 15 09:46:00 1989


In article <10727@boulder.Colorado.EDU> hunt@tramp.Colorado.EDU
(Lee Cameron Hunt) writes:
>   A few CS and EE friends and I have postulated from pre-release
>news/magazine articles that originally the NeXT was intended to have much
>faster graphics in color.  The emphasis on custom DMA hardware for very fast
>system throughput seems to imply that this is true.  

I disagree.  The original personal computer, the Alto, and its
successors (DLion, and esp. Dorado), had a special emphasis on
high-bandwidth I/O.  This is one of the reasons why all the Xerox
processor products were so expensive.

The IBM PC and its relatives, and especially the Macintosh, have
relatively poor I/O hardware support.

I don't think there was any *particular* application for this type of
"Muscle Processor", but just the general feeling that the CPU must be
prepared to drive a mouse, a disk, an ethernet, and a huge bitmap
display all at once, and at full speed.  Clearly, if you run out of
CPU cycles, this defeats the benefits of using a Personal Computer.

I don't doubt that some of the ex-Xeroids (Xerox Employees) took this
philosophy to NeXT when they were hired away by Steve Jobs.

Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies