Apple hardware (was Re: Cave Men and Dinosaurs)

[William Roberts;]

In <7661 at segue.segue.com> gene at segue.segue.com (Gene Hightower) writes:

>Other vendors (Sun included) give you ethernet and much better video
>systems as standard features not requiring extra cards.

The IIci, LC and IIsi have pretty fair built in video (the IIsi will support a 
large display, though it's a few rows less than the standard Sun monitor).

I actually view coprocessor Ethernet cards as a significant advantage: in my 
NFS server benchmarking work (paper available) there is a test which measures 
just CPU+Ethernet performance. The fastest machine I tested wasn't the Sun4, 
nor the SPARCStation 1+, nor the SLC, but the Mac IIfx: the IIfx was faster by 
about 15%.

The new Apple ethernet cards are A/ROSE capable, so even more of the protocol 
processing could (and should) be pushed into the card: alas A/UX 2.0.1 is 
still not using the processor on the card, but hopefully this will come.

On the other hand, having to find an extra power point for the "AUI adaptor" 
(thick Ethernet) is really annoying. Apple people tell me it's because of 
NuBus power budgets etc, but I see it as a reason for buying non Apple cards...
--

William Roberts                 Internet:  liam at dcs.qmw.ac.uk
Queen Mary & Westfield College  UUCP:      liam at qmw-dcs.UUCP
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