This is Graphics-info-wanted-for-the-NeXT.. in view mode; [Up]
Date: Sun 15-Aug-1989 14:46:00 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Graphics info wanted for the NeXT.. In article <10727@boulder.Colorado.EDU> hunt@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Lee Cameron Hunt) writes: > A few CS and EE friends and I have postulated from pre-release >news/magazine articles that originally the NeXT was intended to have much >faster graphics in color. The emphasis on custom DMA hardware for very fast >system throughput seems to imply that this is true. I disagree. The original personal computer, the Alto, and its successors (DLion, and esp. Dorado), had a special emphasis on high-bandwidth I/O. This is one of the reasons why all the Xerox processor products were so expensive. The IBM PC and its relatives, and especially the Macintosh, have relatively poor I/O hardware support. I don't think there was any *particular* application for this type of "Muscle Processor", but just the general feeling that the CPU must be prepared to drive a mouse, a disk, an ethernet, and a huge bitmap display all at once, and at full speed. Clearly, if you run out of CPU cycles, this defeats the benefits of using a Personal Computer. I don't doubt that some of the ex-Xeroids (Xerox Employees) took this philosophy to NeXT when they were hired away by Steve Jobs. Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois 1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801 >From: epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott)
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.