From: strobl@gmd.de (Wolfgang Strobl)
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32
Subject: Re: Win NT, some simple questions
Date: 6 Oct 92 15:57:18 GMT
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, Germany

In <TORSTEIN.92Oct6135926@itekiris.kjemi.unit.no> torstein@itekiris.kjemi.unit.no (torstein hansen) writes:

>As a user of both a 486/33 PC and a Silicon Graphics Indigo, I am
>interested in information regarding Windows NT. Some simple questions
>follows: 

I have a similar configuration, i.e. a 486/33, a Toshiba CD-ROM
and an Indigo.

>1) I have a Toshiba P-CDR-1 CD-ROM player connected to the Indigo,
>what hardware, drivers etc. do I need to connect this to my PC?

As far as I know, the Toshiba PD-CDR-1 is called TXM3301 by Toshiba,
and is one of the drives supported by the current (July) NT prerelease.

In order to connect it to your PC, you need one of the supported
SCSI adapters. I didn't try that, because I don't have one, and
because I already had another (not supported) CD-ROM on my PC, 
and because the DOS2NT installation (i.e. installation under DOS, 
via MSCDEX and XCOPY) worked quite well. If that had failed, 
I would have bought an Adaptec 154x SCSI controller in order to
use the Toshiba drive. 

>2) If I'm correct, you may buy the pre-beta release in the States for
>approx. 60-70 US$. In an ad. here in Norway, they are charging equiv.
>~340 US$. Is it possible to buy direct from the USA? Will Microsoft
>have any objections? Will I be entitled to any upgrades? ...?

In Germany, Microsoft had an article in the German
"Microsoft System Journal" which announced the PDK and contained
prices and order numbers. The price for the CD (including all
the upgrades up to and including the final NT) without docs was
164 DM. I ordered it immediately and got it eight weeks later.
As far as I know, the U.S. price is 69$ + 20$ for shipping, which
not much diffrent from 164 DM (which includes shipping) (1.50 DM == 1$).

Are you shure that your price doesn't apply to the PDK *including*
documentation? This is more expensive.

>3) Does the pre-release support Lantastic Networks?

I don't think so. 

>4) Is there anybody who will give an educated guess on what I will
>have to pay for Excel, Word etc. compiled for the Indigo version of
>Windows NT? Will it be much higher than the PC version? 

There isn't an official version of NT for the Indigo, yet,
so it is hard to speculate about that.

>5) When will the NT be available for the Indigo? At what price?

The current answer from SGI is that they have demonstrated it, but that
they haven't announced anything.

Anyway, I have the suspicion that the expected NT for the Indigo
won't run on current versions of the Indigo, because it has the
R3000 processor, only. This means that might have to swap the
motherboard against a new one in order to run NT, if that becomes
available. Unfortunately, this isn't always feasible. :-(

>6) Is there any roumors regarding the final price on the Win NT?

MS says:  <500$ for the single client version, >500$ for the server
version. I hope they will consider a heavy discount for
developers! :-)

>7) What compilers will be supporting Win NT? (I am currently using
>Turbo Pascal for Windows) 

Ask Borland :-). I'm using the Zortech C++ compiler for DOS development,
but given the dubious future of that compiler, I'm now considering
other options, too. For NT development, currently there is only
one option: the prerelease C/C++ compiler from MS which comes with
the PDK. 

Wolfgang Strobl
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Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32