3/50 upgrade product announcement from Sun

[Tait Cyrus]

phil at Rice.edu (William LeFebvre) writes:
>...
>PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT   3/50 Upgrade...
>Upgrades for flat-top 3/50s:
>  UG3/60-4F   Upgrade 3/50 CPU to 3/60 CPU w/4MB         $4,950
>  UG3/60-8F   Upgrade 3/50 CPU to 3/60 CPU w/8MB         $6,650
>  UG3/60-12F  Upgrade 3/50 CPU to 3/60 CPU w/12MB       $10,050
>  UG3/60-16F  Upgrade 3/50 CPU to 3/60 CPU w/16MB       $13,450
>  UG3/60-20F  Upgrade 3/50 CPU to 3/60 CPU w/20MB       $16,850
>  UG3/60-24F  Upgrade 3/50 CPU to 3/60 CPU w/24MB       $20,250

This seems to me to be a BAD deal.  Why should I spend $6,650 to upgrade
to a roughly 4 MIP machine when I can pay ~$9,000 for a 10 MIP machine
from DEC (Vaxstation 3100).  Sun has got to do better than this.  I am NOT
mentioning this to start a fight as to who makes better machines because I
REALLY like Sun produces (that is all we have in our research group).  I
am mentioning this because Sun is charging $1,650/MIP while other vendors
are MUCH lower; DEC for example, with the 3100, is ~$900/MIP.  

When is Sun going to come out with a machine using the 50 MIPS Bipolar
Tech. chip that was promised 4Q88 (yes last year)?

---
W. Tait Cyrus   (505) 277-0806		e-mail: cyrus at pprg.unm.edu
University of New Mexico			
Dept of ECE - Parallel Processing Research Group
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131