[Info-vax] VAX 6000 on Young Sheldon

[Scott Dorsey]

Dave Froble  <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>On 2/12/2023 6:44 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 2/12/2023 6:08 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>> On 2/12/2023 3:14 PM, Steven Schweda wrote:
>>>>> The difference in floating point performance between a straight 11/780
>>>>> and a Sparcstation I was absolutely staggering. [...]
>>>>
>>>>    Well, duh.  "absolutely staggering" is how I might describe the _age_
>>>> of a VAX-11/780 when the SPARCstation 1 was released (1989).  A decade
>>>> later, the SPARCstation 1 might have been less impressive, too.  (As I
>>>> recall, it was.)
>>>
>>> Perhaps cost is an issue?  The cost of a VAX 11/780 back then, even after 11
>>> years, might still be on one's mind, and the reason it still might be in use.
>>
>> I think you are on to something.
>>
>> What did a SPARCstation 1 cost in 1989?
>>
>> What did a VAX 780 (let us say maxed out with memory)
>> cost in 1979?
>
>Most likely in the neighborhood of half a million ...
>
>Some of that will be the disk drives, which were over 20K, each ..

... and if you were smart you got a service contract on them... which was
expensive but paid for itself very quickly in RA81 heads...
--scott


-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."