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Apollo DN10000: Quad CPU/128Mb RAM workstation from 1988 [pdf]

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Re: Apollo DN10000: Quad CPU/128Mb RAM workstation from 1988 [pdf]

#111

Post by mciancia »

johnklos wrote: post #42
kingo55 wrote: post #2

Even 10-15 years later, multiple CPUs and 128Mb RAM was quite uncommon. How much did this beast cost back in the 80s? Edit: Max configs were up to $250,000 ($663,937.02 today) back then according to this price list: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/apollo/Apollo_Price_List_Jul88....

True, but there were wonderful exceptions. For instance, the Mac SE/30 (1989) could take up to 128 megs, and the Amiga 3000 (1990) was designed to allow for even more (although only 16 megs on the motherboard, but 256 meg Zorro III cards were available in 1993). Later, some m68k Macs like the Quadra 605 allowed for 128 meg SIMMs, and the PCI Power Macs really took things to a new level. The Power Mac 9500 could take…

> The Power Mac 9500 could take up to 1.5 gigs of memory in 1995.

> It's a shame that no computers really distinguish themselves like that any more, aside from high end server systems.

Well, intel mac pro from 2019 could take up to 1.5TB of ram while I would guess standard back then for PCs was 16-32GB at most. So should be comparable (1.5GB vs 16-32MB of ram in 1995)?

Re: Apollo DN10000: Quad CPU/128Mb RAM workstation from 1988 [pdf]

#112

Post by icedchai »

TheAmazingRace wrote: post #103
supportengineer wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should look up “Commodore Amiga”, it was way more powerful than PC

Although the Amiga was quite a neat piece of kit when it first came out in 1985, I disagree with your comment unfortunately. The custom chipset sorta "froze" the Amiga design to a particular level and it was very hard to make meaningful upgrades, unlike PCs, where you could slap a new CPU into the CPU socket, or a new video accelerator, sound card, etc, into the ISA or PCI busses. Yes I realize there were accelerator…

I was a Amiga fan until the mid 90's, and you're spot on. The Amiga was too difficult to iterate on. Chip set upgrades like AGA were far too little, too late. (And forget about ECS, which barely added anything a normal user would care about.) By the time AGA was out, 386 systems with SVGA, Soundblaster, etc were cheap and common.

Re: Apollo DN10000: Quad CPU/128Mb RAM workstation from 1988 [pdf]

#114

Post by sitkack »

userbinator wrote: post #3
kingo55 wrote: post #2

Even 10-15 years later, multiple CPUs and 128Mb RAM was quite uncommon. How much did this beast cost back in the 80s? Edit: Max configs were up to $250,000 ($663,937.02 today) back then according to this price list: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/apollo/Apollo_Price_List_Jul88....

Dual (50% overclocked) Celerons on a BP6 was a relatively common enthusiast setup in the early 2000s. 128M of RAM was also not a huge amount then.

My friends and I all built BP6 machines. Such a wonderful workstation machine. I donated mine to the PC recycler when I moved in 2005. It still is my favorite beige box unix workstation.

Re: Apollo DN10000: Quad CPU/128Mb RAM workstation from 1988 [pdf]

#117

Post by fecal_henge »

kstrauser wrote: post #46
billforsternz wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm triggered every time I see things like "$663,937.02 today". I just can't help it. There should be a word for [mindlessly] reporting the results of a calculation to arbitrary precision when only one significant digit of precision is warranted. There probably is such a word in German.

You and me both! When I see something like "a blue whale can be nearly 100 feet (30.48m) long", I want to throw a math book at the author. "Nearly 100 feet" is "nearly 30 meters". "About $250K" is "about $660K today" at best.

Should be 1/4 M$, 2/3 M$.

Re: Apollo DN10000: Quad CPU/128Mb RAM workstation from 1988 [pdf]

#118

Post by encom »

Sparkyte wrote: post #115

Innovation in the turn of the century was amazing. Today it seems all innovations follow in step with whatever the current trend is as opposed to being a trendsetter of its own design. Anyone else getting exhausted about hearing LLMs and AI already?

There's always a fad of greater or lesser magnitude going around. Before AI it was blockchain. And before that we had virtual reality, 3D television, netbooks, the information super highway, juicero, segways, internet of things and Rust. I just tune most of it out.

Re: Apollo DN10000: Quad CPU/128Mb RAM workstation from 1988 [pdf]

#119

Post by sgt »

encom wrote: post #118
Sparkyte wrote: post #115

Innovation in the turn of the century was amazing. Today it seems all innovations follow in step with whatever the current trend is as opposed to being a trendsetter of its own design. Anyone else getting exhausted about hearing LLMs and AI already?

There's always a fad of greater or lesser magnitude going around. Before AI it was blockchain. And before that we had virtual reality, 3D television, netbooks, the information super highway, juicero, segways, internet of things and Rust. I just tune most of it out.

Is Rust a fad?

Re: Apollo DN10000: Quad CPU/128Mb RAM workstation from 1988 [pdf]

#120

Post by [deleted] »

billforsternz wrote: post #44
kingo55 wrote: post #2

Even 10-15 years later, multiple CPUs and 128Mb RAM was quite uncommon. How much did this beast cost back in the 80s? Edit: Max configs were up to $250,000 ($663,937.02 today) back then according to this price list: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/apollo/Apollo_Price_List_Jul88....

I'm triggered every time I see things like "$663,937.02 today". I just can't help it. There should be a word for [mindlessly] reporting the results of a calculation to arbitrary precision when only one significant digit of precision is warranted. There probably is such a word in German.

[deleted]
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