Path: terra.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!uunet!openlink.openlink.com!news.maui.com!usenet From: Tim Griswold Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.marketplace Subject: 68060 Upgrade Rumor Date: 22 Oct 1994 00:20:52 GMT Organization: Maui Research and Technology Center (MRTC) Lines: 92 Distribution: world Message-ID: <389lt4$2bh@lawelawe-f0.mrtc.maui.com> Reply-To: Tim Griswold NNTP-Posting-Host: mr2-240.mrtc.maui.com Regarding the ongoing rumor of an 060 upgrade. Dancing Bear Enterprises has done a fair amount of research/evaluation regarding the developing such an upgrade. We have also tried to find any others that may be working on it. We identified several challenges: hardware, software, testing and support. Hardware wise, it is a "no-brainer" the 060 is not pin compatible with an 040, however, there is a 3rd party manufacturer that has an adapter that will plug between the 040 slot and the 060 chip. It takes care of the pin-outs and voltage changes. It also doubles the clock speed. The first big problem is on the software side. The 060 instruction set is not identical to the 040 set. As a result, it would be necessary to patch the operating system to plug all the holes that would result. This can be done either with or without NeXT's help. There are corresponding costs and time requirements. It has always been our experience that, when it comes to cooperation, NeXT is more of a problem than they could/should be. NeXT's standard answer seems to be "Our engineers have too many things on their plate to spend time evaluating the product." We have also learned, from personal experience, that NeXT's approach is to sue first and ask questions later. There basic approach is to make it difficult by getting their dogs to file law suits. Apparently this approach is normally it is very effective. In our case, it wasn't. We got a meaner dog and they wound up writing a rather nice check to make us go away. In any case, it took months and tied up capital and time that we could ill afford. With NeXT's help, it would still take considerable time to develop and test, decreasing the potential market. The problem, of course, is getting NeXT's help. Again based on our experience, they would tie us up for several months. We had also found that there was another group working on the project. Testing is also a hugh challenge. Even with their cooperation (releasing source code to us) it would be very difficult and costly, without Source, it would be almost impossible to do it profitably. It's kind of like submarine warfare. First to find the holes, second to patch them and then test. But, you must keep looking for holes because you will probably never find them all. And you can be sure one will bite you in the ... as soon as you let your guard down. You must test to see that you have fixed the original hole but you must also test to make sure you have not created new problems. To do this you need extensive hardware configurations, a suite of test programs, staff and time. Without the original suite of test tools, you just can't be sure you are even close. Ongoing support could also be costly. Potentially we would have to go through this same exercise with each new software release. If we did it without their support, there was also a strong probability that NeXT would sue (because that is their Standard Operating Procedure) which would add time and cost, and could potentially block the release. There was also a question of market size. Our original estimate (about 5 months ago) was that the market was probably in the 5000 to 7000 unit range. A 6 month delay would cut that by at least 50%. This would mean a higher cost per unit (to recover engineering expenses) which would further reduce the market. Every month the release is delayed would reduce the market for the product. While there were 55,000 NeXTs sold originally, the market is only a small fraction of that amount. Many of those have the 68040 soldered on so they are unlikely candidates for an upgrade. A fair number, we don't know how many, have also been sent to the cruncher (both Sun and HP have had programs to trade in the NeXT against the purchase of their systems). The remaining install base is divided into three class of customer: Corporate, government and bottom-feeders. Big corporations are very reluctant to invest further in "obsolete" hardware, as well as the government. While the rest of us would love to keep our NeXT forever and upgrade them to be bigger-better-faster, the truth is a lot of these people are still running 030's. Think of it like Playboy, it is great to dream but when it comes time to actually live the life, few really step out there. Our conclusion was that the costs and risks did not represent a prudent investment of or time, money and energy. Since that time, we have heard that the other party has abandoned their effort. We have not been able to confirm this, but we haven't heard of any scheduled release date either...who knows? I put the probability of any kind of enhancement to the black hardware as "very low." I don't know if this qualifies as "factual" response some have ask for, but I think it is a reasonable analysis of the situation. I would love to hear that someone is actually developing the upgrade. Tim Griswold tim@dancingbear.com (NeXT MAIL Accepted) 800-221-2217 808-875-2455 808-874-3650 fax --------------------------------------------------------------------------- For info on Dancing Bear's Products and services, or to obtain our current catalog, send an email message to: infoaccess@dancingbear.com with a subject of help, index, catalog ---------------------------------------------------------------------------