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From: root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (SBCS Systems Staff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AMIX?
Message-ID: <1261@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: 8 May 88 02:54:41 GMT
References: <466@mailrus.cc.umich.edu> <863@gethen.UUCP> <391@brambo.UUCP> <862@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Lines: 52
Summary: Sun or Amiga?  No, I use them both..

In article <862@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>, jesup@pawl15.pawl.rpi.edu (Randell E. Jesup) writes:
> In article <1250@sbcs.sunysb.edu> root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (SBCS Systems Staff) writes:
> 		parity = 1/8 greater chance of failure :-)

		Or looking at it another way, knowing that you do indeed
		have a problem.

> 		grey-scale (7 levels), not BW.

		When I say "BW", I mean !color.  Greyscale is nice to have
		but it isn't a requirement for my "Unix seat".

> 		Extra serial ports will soon be available, as is ram
> 		expansion, video boards, etc, etc.  The 2000 is an 
> 		expandable system, unlike the 3/50.  Can a 3/50 have more
> 		than the standard 4 Meg memory?

		No, but a 3/60 can take up to (I think) 24 meg of
		SIMM memory.  I seem to remember that the BW version
		of 3/60 is around $8K or so.  The 3/60 also has a
		kludged (ala A1000) expansion connector called the "P4".

> 
> 		The European Unix market wants Sys V, not BSD.  Also, where
> 		did the $800 come from (not that I have any knowlege one
> 		way or the other.)
> 
		The $800 is a guess based on what other small machine
		vendors are charging for their "full" SysV ports (with 
		C compiler, etc).  Adjust the number as low as you want,
		then proceed to add cost for third party software to
		patch missing SysV features, eg mature Window software, 
		networking, FTN, Pascal, etc, etc..

> 	I think the more appropriate comparison would be to the lowest-
> level Sun-3 with a backplane for expansion, not the (normally) diskless,
> unexpandable workstation (plus I thought they were replacing the 3/50 with
> the 3/60).

		No, I was comparing costs of a Unix seat: Amiga -vs- Sun.  My
		point is that by the time you're done building an Amiga into
		a reasonable Unix seat, you've spent about the same bucks
		as you would have on a Sun.  

		A true apples to apples comparison Sun vs Amiga is probably
		not possible, as the Sun machines bring higher expansion bus
		throughput, more mature Unix, larger amounts of memory, higher&
		deeper color, etc vs the Amiga's sound capabilities, blitter,
		cheaper expansion peripherals, etc.  This is why I constrained
		my comments to a generic Unix seat.

						Rick Spanbauer
						SUNY/Stony Brook