Re: Re: MISC personal computers -Reply

[Jaap van Ganswijk <ganswijk@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 13:28 19990211 -0600, Mike Simon wrote:
>
>What is needed is an embedded OS.
>
>Desktops get the press. Embeded gets the volume.
>
>Applications with a Com port and control stuff are the big
>volume apps. Here is where weight, power, and reliability are 
>critical.
>
>Doesn't sound like Windows CE or Java to me. These are
>screen oriented OSs. What we need is an embeded OS.

Selling embeddable chips is a completely different problem
from trying to introduce a new PC. The real bulk of the
embedded product applications doesn't even need a real OS.

What embeddable processors need is:
- Many on-chip peripherals
- On board (small) RAM en (big) [[[E]E]P]ROM.
- Low cost (so high production volume)
- Good support from the manufacturer

Speed is often not essential.

Not really the playing field for the MISC it seems. The MISC needs
to find a niche between simple embedded applications and real computers.
Seems that it will have to compete with the ARM, i960, H32 (?) etc.

What clients in this field often want is that there is progress in the
development process of the processor. When I buy an n Mips processor
today, can I buy an 2n MHz processor next year to satisfy the growing
requirements of my own clients and my software etc. (Or when the
processor turns out to be too slow after my software development
cycle of several months.)

Greetings,
Jaap


>Simon
>=======================================================
>====================
>Mike Simon
>Sundstrand Aerospace
>POB 7002
>Rockford, Illinois 61125
>815-226-3326
>FAX 815-226-2552
>mlsimon@snds.com
>
>>>> Jaap van Ganswijk <ganswijk%xs4all.nl@internet.rkd.snds.com> 8 February 1999 >>>
>Hi dreamers,
>
>At 17:24 19990208 -0500, dirnfir wrote:
>>Hmm, it seems you and I have seperate views on this subject...  If I had the
>>technical ability / funding / whatever to start a computer company, it would
>>operate thusly: there would be no 'commercial operating system'  I would
>>sell a MISC motherboard that came with operating system disks.  On those
>>disks would be an open source Forth development system, graphics and I/O
>>libraries, a basic GUI, ASCII text editor - the bare essentials.  The system
>>would be targeted at geeks.  When the first modifications were written, I
>>would incorporate them into the operating system and bundle them on the
>>disks with the next batch of boards.  My company would contribute by doing
>>quality control and correcting Human Interface issues.  After a year or two
>>of that, I would be ready to attempt to sell to the average user.
>>(Remember, my staff would be preparing it for mass consumption during the
>>"geek" period.)  The system would still appeal to geeks, but would also be
>>suitable for home users.
>
>Let's try to learn a lesson from history:
>
>OS's and hardware are almost always 'grown' seperately.
>
>Independent OS's:
>- Unix
>- NewDOS (alternative but much better OS for the TRS-80)
>- CPM
>- MS-DOS
>- Xenix
>- Windows 3
>- Windows 95
>- Windows NT
>- Linux
>- BeOS
>
>Dependent OS's:
>- AppleOS
>- GEM (=AtariOS)
>- AmigaOS
>- SinclairOS
>- Commodore64OS
>- OS/2
>- NextStep
>
>I could say a lot of each point seperately but basically the independent OS's
>did much better than the dependent ones. Even after changing category later
>in life (like GEM, OS/2, NextStep) they didn't make it. Only AppleOS is still
>alive...
>
>Ergo, to promote a new computer/OS combination would be silly. Let's seperate
>the problem and see what questions are left:
>1. Why would I like to write a new OS for the MISC?
>2. In what way would a MISC be better for running an existing or new OS?
>
>At 1. Why write a new OS? We already have too many. Port Linux.
>At 2. I don't know... It would really have to execute compiled C code fast,
>because of the vested interests, I think... And you really can't compete with
>the pentium-boards industry. Going multi-processor is a weakness offer
>(and adding an enormous amount of undue complexity at the same time).
>
>
>Greetings,
>Jaap
>
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Greetings,
Jaap

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