From: byer@adobe.com (Scott Byer)
Subject: Re:  100 Mips Intel NeXT (moved from comp.sys.next.misc)
Reply-To: byer@adobe.com (Scott Byer)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 23:15:35 GMT

Jon Rosen writes

>   Huh?  Has anybody told Microsoft about this?  Last time I checked,
>   Windows ran quite nicely thank you on a 386 box, let alone a 486
>   box.   Sure it runs BETTER with wider bandwidth, but to say it
>   is UNUSABLE is quite an indictment that I don't believe at all.

MicroSoft has the weight to throw around to make a video card
manufacturer put ten people to work for six months writing a Windows
driver.  What's MicroSoft saying about _NT_ though?  They still
suggest local bus video.

Remember, Windows isn't the competition.  NeXTSTEP is clearly more
than twice as good as Windows, you can get people to switch.  The
competition is NT.

>   Color tables are CLEARLY a problem in a multi-tasking GUI (ala
>   X/Motif for instance, 8-bit color tables SUCK rocks), but my
>   proposal has been to support continuous 6-bit color (+2 bits
>   alpha) which gives 64 colors without color tables (if the hardware
>   has color tables, the Display Postscript Server would simply FIX
>   the color tables itself with the correct 64 colors).

This can work just fine when video memory is processor acessable.
SVGA doesn't have that as part of it's (non) standard, and pixels
would have to be written one at a time, with quite a bit of processor
work.  Using the coprocessor is not an option when the coprocessor
doesn't implement things like lines and dithered fills properly.
GDI doesn't care about WYSIWYG, it just throws things at the
coprocessor willy-nilly, correctness be damned.

I certainly think XGA should be supported in a 2x2x2 mode.  XGA/2
is a much more useable graphics standard.  It also got about the
only coprocessor I've seen that could be used to accelerate Display
PostScript.

>   True, but this doesn't deal with the MILLIONS of installed 486s
>   that will NOT have localBus video.  NeXT has got to start addressing
>   MARKETSHARE, the only thing that will finally drive their business
>   to a resounding success.  Purism has no place in these matters.

Not purism, practicality.  It's a graph of marketshare vs. market
window.  And the window on the 486 boxes isn't very long.  The
drawstring is called NT.  NT ain't gonna be great, it ain't gonna
blow you're socks off.  But it's going to be *just good enough*,
in the great way that MicroSoft knows how to do, and then it'll be
marketed to death.  A company that knows how to market is just not
something NeXT can really compete with.

NeXT should support as many machines as possible - in the long run.
I junk think they should save the hard stuff for the update.  Get
the local bus (and possibly XGA, if it's quick enough) video capable
version out *now*, while any committed customers are still at the
door.

--
Scott Byer                             NeXTMail: byer@mv.us.adobe.com
Adobe Systems Incorporated               These are *my* opinions, and  
1585 Charleston Road, P.O. Box 7900        do not necessarily reflect
Mountain View, CA 94039-7900             the opinions of my employer.
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