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Mutating micro- processor and comoputer comparsions..
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Paula Lieberman
Dec 22, 1991, 10:53:19 PM12/22/91
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A system's only as good as its weakest link.... and people often have very
different ideas of what a weak or the weakest link it. Comparing an 80486
machine against an Amiga powered by a 68030 or a 68040 add-in board one
runs into the issues of how good the compilers are on each machine, how
congruent the tasks and software being run are, and a lot of other issues
which are highly subjective, such as look and feel and user interface.
Sometimes the weak link can be the user -- someone who despised WIMP
interfaces isn't going to have really nice things to say about any machine
which confronts that user with WIMPiness. Conversely, someone who hates
command line interfaces is going to feel the same way about a machine that
doesn't present WIMPs to its users.... A lot of things are
applications-dependent -- if all the user wants to do is one particular
application, such as factory control, then any capability in hardware
and/or software that doesn't apply to factory control is totally
irrelevant, unnecessary,and extraneous noise to that particular user. For
someone who wants to do DTP and DTP only, though, stuff important to
factory automation is irrelevant. All the SPECmarks, Dhrystones, etc. etc.
benchmarks in the world aren't going to matter to someone if the
applications interfaces/hardware/software required to meet a particular
user's needs do not exist for that machine. -- from the point of view
purely of extant hardware and software for wide range of applications and
uses, MS-DOS is today the heavyweight. For industrial applications, VMEbus
is growing very rapidly, and other 32 bit buses which workstations are or
can be associated with. There's some stuff available for Macs, but most
ofthe Macs out there are severely architecturally limited/"challenged" to
do much of anything with beyond boring business applications for single
users with small databases and limited needs. The main limitations on
Amigas are the lack of visibility, lack of breadth and depth in third party
products, and general lack of support in from companies perceived as market
leaders in product utility and quality for third party software and
peripherals.
different ideas of what a weak or the weakest link it. Comparing an 80486
machine against an Amiga powered by a 68030 or a 68040 add-in board one
runs into the issues of how good the compilers are on each machine, how
congruent the tasks and software being run are, and a lot of other issues
which are highly subjective, such as look and feel and user interface.
Sometimes the weak link can be the user -- someone who despised WIMP
interfaces isn't going to have really nice things to say about any machine
which confronts that user with WIMPiness. Conversely, someone who hates
command line interfaces is going to feel the same way about a machine that
doesn't present WIMPs to its users.... A lot of things are
applications-dependent -- if all the user wants to do is one particular
application, such as factory control, then any capability in hardware
and/or software that doesn't apply to factory control is totally
irrelevant, unnecessary,and extraneous noise to that particular user. For
someone who wants to do DTP and DTP only, though, stuff important to
factory automation is irrelevant. All the SPECmarks, Dhrystones, etc. etc.
benchmarks in the world aren't going to matter to someone if the
applications interfaces/hardware/software required to meet a particular
user's needs do not exist for that machine. -- from the point of view
purely of extant hardware and software for wide range of applications and
uses, MS-DOS is today the heavyweight. For industrial applications, VMEbus
is growing very rapidly, and other 32 bit buses which workstations are or
can be associated with. There's some stuff available for Macs, but most
ofthe Macs out there are severely architecturally limited/"challenged" to
do much of anything with beyond boring business applications for single
users with small databases and limited needs. The main limitations on
Amigas are the lack of visibility, lack of breadth and depth in third party
products, and general lack of support in from companies perceived as market
leaders in product utility and quality for third party software and
peripherals.
-- Via DLG Pro v0.985b
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