Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 15:40:30 02/24/99
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On February 24, 1999 at 17:08:41, Dann Corbit wrote: >Why is there a 1 CPU limit for microcomputers? This is an artificial >distinction, since they are clearly being sold in bulk right now. I suggest, >instead, to have a limit on the retail cost of the machine. If the machine can >be bought for $10,000 from the local computer outlet, then it is a >microcomputer. Have an official date that the price (whatever you might choose) >must be under a certain level. The same arguments happen every year. Here was my argument against a dollar limit on hardware for a WMCCC last time, and I think it is still good. I sit in my house and occasionally buy a computer, which I take to these events. When I come back, I have to eat the thing for the next year or two. It becomes my development machine or my ICC machine or whatever. If I want to buy a computer, I should be able to buy a quality computer. I shouldn't be essentially forced to buy a crap machine so I can get an extra few mhz out of it. I don't want to have to buy a crappy case and a crappy motherboard and a crappy hard-disk, just so I can go 10% faster until the machine breaks. There are lots of other reasons why this is unworkable, in my opinion. I don't think it is possible to put a limit on the machines in the WMCCC, the only effective limit is the single-processor limit, possibly supplemented by a requirement that the machine be approximately PC-sized (a restriction based upon the size of the box, inherent in the term "microcomputer"). Limitations on the chip you can use will lead to an Intel-centric competition. I shouldn't have to use the Pentium architecture if I don't think it suits me. Attempts to allow other processor types by implementing a performance ceiling once again force me to buy an inferior development machine. Again: if I have a few thousand for a new machine, and my old machine is a 200, and the new machines are 450's, and the limit is a 300, then I either have to go on the 200 or buy a useless 300. If the ceiling is a 450 and there is an Alpha chip that is faster, and maybe is even cheaper than the 450, I can't upgrade to the new machine, I have to go on last year's machine, so the Intel boxes get an unfair advantage. This goes on and on. bruce
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