Re: How many times must Apple make such DRASTIC architecture changes?

[reynolds@panix.com (Brian Reynolds)]

In article <Sfb*OlOQq@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>,
Tim Cutts  <timc@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
>In article <null-54E099.21304309062005@news-rdr-03.rdc-kc.rr.com>,
>Greg Buchner  <null@invalid.com> wrote:
>>In article <d8anur$oi0$1@panix3.panix.com>,
>> reynolds@panix.com (Brian Reynolds) wrote:
>>
>>> No, it's not a Mac.  Steve Jobs was wrong.  Apple did not introduce
>>> the first 64-bit PC.  Sun did with the SunBlade 100.
>>
>>The Sun Blade 100 is listed as a workstation.  Usually it seems that 
>>there is a difference between workstations and PCs.

That's because Sun defines everything that isn't a server as a
workstation.

The SunBlade 100 was under $1000 at the time I got mine.  Definitely
in the PC price range at the time.

I remember when the Wintel machines started marketing themselves as
workstations in order to edge into the Sun/DEC/HP/SGI marketplace.

>>It all depends on how you define things.
>
>True.  The Sun Blade is a newcomer.  I have an AlphaPC LX164 for messing
>about with.  This is over 5 years old, and although some would call
>it a workstation, it's really a 64-bit PC.  It can run Windows NT 3.51
>or 4, it's got PCI and ISA buses, it's got normal PC IDE controllers,
>normal PC-style memory modules.  In what way isn't it a PC, other than
>its 64 bit Alpha EV56 processor?  And mine isn't even a first generation
>one either; it's a 533 MHz CPU, which is much faster than the first
>AlphaPCs.

I had forgotten about the Alphas.  For all the talk about how good a
processor Alpha was, I never saw any of them out in the wild, only at
trade shows.

The SunBlade (and earlier Ultra5 and Ultra10) are also PCI bus with
IDE drives.  You can even use some PCI cards meant for Wintel
machines.  I guess by that definition the Ultra5 or Ultra10 could be
considered 64-bit PCs, but they were a lot more expensive.

-- 
Brian Reynolds                  | "It's just like flying a spaceship.
reynolds@panix.com              |  You push some buttons and see
http://www.panix.com/~reynolds/ |  what happens." -- Zapp Brannigan
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