From: Eugene Fiume (elf_at_dgp.toronto.edu)
Date: Wed May 10 1995 - 17:58:15 EDT
} I kind of figured that my next machine would be an IBM thinkpad PPC running
} OS2, when and if such a thing comes out. Is this in the cards? I heard
} that PPC's consume less power than the Pentium. Is this still true? What
} ever happened to IBMs vow to stay away from Pentiums? It must have taken
} them HOURS to eat their words :).
More like three seconds, I'd say. I can understand their corporate
strategy not to be boxed in by Intel, but you have to be pragmatic. As
for where things are going, I don't think we're very far away from a
fast PPC or Pentium, truecolour, 1k*1k TFT, hardware MPEG/digital
video machine. I would be really surprised if such a box is more than
a year away. Reality Engine level graphics in two or less.
The question is whether the software will keep up. I once thought UNIX
hung together by a thread until I started playing with DOS/Windows and
the like. The sheer amount of software to play with is exciting, but
the quality of the base OS's on PC's leave a lot to be desired. I have
been able to do "serious" work with Linux, however. But unless
something magical happens, I can't see that Linux and other PC UNIX
implementations can keep up the pace, especially if they go beyond the
Intel architecture.
Eugene Fiume.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Thu Jan 23 2003 - 09:52:36 EST