CompuServe Messages

Stephen- >As the owner of two Toaster systems, I'd much rather purchase a $2K card >than shell out $6K for a new platform, which I'll have to learn all over >again. Plus, I'd have to purchase all the software (beaucoup $$) and spend >all that time getting to where I'm already at with LW. Perhaps I'm >overestimating my learning curve, I don't know. I've never worked with any >Power PC software, not to mention SGI and SoftImage et al. Oh, sure, for existing Amigans $2k forestalls a big problem. But for -new- Amigans? There's no reason for people to start out with an Amiga as things stand now, and certainly not if things get worse. Even good software isn't enough. I haven't used LightWave, but I tell you this – Alias is a bitch and a half to use. It's not hard to understand, it just has an interface that is from hell and makes everything take four times as many steps as it should. Anway, as far as the UU board, this is what I know. (Maybe other people will fill in the gaps.) Jim Drew, pres of UU, said that UU is working on a multiprocessor board for Amigas that will use from 1 to 4 Motorola 060s. The base board, he says, will cost ~$1k, with each additional 060 costing ~$300. He has not said what clock this board will run at – i.e. 50Mhz or 66MHz, or whether the board will be available in multiple versions for different clocks, or how much faster clocks will cost. He said that the software required to enable multiprocessing on the Amiga amounted to 300 bytes of code. Go figure. He also maintains that the 060 is more powerful than people think it is, and that it does -not- run hot. Perhaps the fact that it is a 3.3v chip explains the latter claim. He also said that Moto plans 100MHz and 200MHz versions of the chip. This seems unlikely to me in light of Moto's history with the 0x0 series, but I suppose the 3.3voltedness of the 060 could at least help up to 100MHz. Additionally he claimed that UU's board would -always- be ahead of any PPC or Pentium solutions. Since the 060 delivers 49SpecInt and ??SpecFP at 50MHz this could conceivably be true in some ways if their multiprocessing software works correctly. Pentiums are already available at 90MHz and will soon be available at faster clocks I am sure. There is a rumoured 135MHz 601, and once the 601 and 604 are re-engineered (soon, according to Andrew Carol) they will be even faster. I find it hard to believe that Moto will release any 060 faster than 66MHz any time soon, but who knows. At any rate, I think even the 50MHz version won't be here until 3Q94. I expect UU's board will follow closely, but Jim said nothing about availability. To give Jim all credit due, while I have expressed skepticism here, he -did- deliver handsomely with the Emplant. Admittedly it was released incomplete, but it has developed into an absolutely splendid product. He says he can deliver multiprocessing; I think that's bs and I'm eagerly expecting it in the stores. <g> So who knows. One last note. The 060 is severely handicapped by its 32bit path to memory, a failing not shared by the Pentium or, I believe, the PPC. Jim stated that UU's board would compensate for this with interleaving schemes. Paul