I'm just feeling bored in this exams period, so I think I will
folloup on this one more time...
> > viper@ludd.luth.se said:
> davidm@azstarnet.com said:
>
> Mikael> If Digital could start manufactoring lowcost motherboards
> Mikael> (the cpu's are very affordably already), then Linux/Alpha
> Mikael> could be a 'explosive' market..
>
> To a good degree this is a chicken and egg problem (as usual): without
> volume, prices are high and with high prices, volume remains low.
Yep, very true. But we must keep one thing in mind, we can never
demand that customers buy the product enough so you can lower the price
becuase of higher volume. Its the company that needs to lower the price
(and probably make a much smaller profit in the beginning), and wait for
the customers to start buying the product, and then start collecting
money.. =)
> Having said that, it does look to me like a lot of vendors regard
> non-x86 systems as cash cows.
Also very true. Ofcourse, in the non-x86 business there is ofter higher
quality and need for better support, which costs alot of money.
> My hope is that two things will happen: (a) really, really low-cost
> Alpha boards start to get produced (e.g., by some Asian manufacturer)
Yes. This is whats really need to be done. Like a 'Asus' for Alpha
motherboards. What do I mean by that? Thats a company making good
'standard boards', nothing fancy but they work excellent. And you
dont get the whole support from an organization like Digital. I see 2
very reasons for having a company from the outside making these lowend
boards:
1. The 'lowend' boards doesnt need to pay for all the 'fancy' support
that Digital needs to have to keep its good reputation.
2. The highend buyers that wants a 'real' Digital workstation, could
still get the good support that digital offers.
Infact, I think getting a company like Asus producing lowcost Alpha
motherboards would be the best that could happen. They already have
the knowledge of howto making mothersboards cheap, and still make a profit.
This would mean several good things (IMHO)
* It would mean alot more cpus would be sold, which means higher profit
and the chance of lower the price (which would also could mean cheaper
'real' machines which also means more competetive against companies like
hp,ibm and so on..)
* Introducing the wounderful Alpha architecture as a powerful and
reasonably prised platform. I know alot of friends that are
students/isp/unix admins which all would buy alphamotherboards
if they were price/perf competetive with x86. All of them wants to
get away from the x86 arch, but for example the Noname 233Mhz
version gives about 120Mhz Pentium perfomance, but for almost twice
the money (x86: $400 cpu + $300 MB + $70 ncr ctrl vs Alpha: $1290 MB+cpu
+ $100 cache). Myself gladely pays the 'small' pricetag, but the big
mass wont.
* With the soon ability of really highend and cheap 3D gfx-card, based on
chipset like GLiNT. And that several companys are porting OPENGL to Linux
(and hopefully Linux/Alpha).With a gfx card like that, and a Alpha cpu,
which are very good at FP, it would be perfect systems for cad/cam and
stuff like that. Should be very competetive with systems like Intergraph
sells...
I know there exists complete chipsets/books and stuff on the subject of
designing Alpha motherboards, but I think Digital needs to encourage
a company like Asus in one way or another, because they only have their
eyes on the x86 market and needs a little help to find the way to the
right path.. ;)
Just my $0.02 ... =)
/Mikael
-- Mikael Nykvist, viper@ludd.luth.se