I'm not sure I understand the obsession with top-of-the-line 3D graphics performance on entry level workstations. Are you telling me that the majority of workstations are sold to game developers or something? What about the significantly large IC design market? What about embedded software development? Granted, Sun Workstations have traditionally ruled this space but x86 is gaining a serious foothold when considering both W2k/XP and Linux. I could not possibly care less about my workstation's fps benchmark in Half Life 2 or whatever the latest 'ultimate' gaming graphics engine benchmark happens to be. I want a machine that crunches numbers like you've never seen, renders the screen perfectly (no buggy drivers! grrr) and doesn't require me to sell my car to pay for it. I have a hard time seeing any engineering workstation other than those used for gaming development or other highly graphics specific niche markets needing state of the art 3D performance. Please enlighten me if I'm hopelessly misinformed.
High-End Desktops, though, are a completely different story. That's gamer land, and I don't think we'll ever see integration work well there because of that segment's demand for flexibility, scalability, and top-notch 3D graphics.
IMHO, it doesn't make much sense to lump High-End Desktops and Workstations into the same pile. They have very different target markets with very different requirements. From the processor standpoint, perhaps, but not from an overall system feature and performance perspective.
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Anonymous User - Monday, September 22, 2003 - link
I'm not sure I understand the obsession with top-of-the-line 3D graphics performance on entry level workstations. Are you telling me that the majority of workstations are sold to game developers or something? What about the significantly large IC design market? What about embedded software development? Granted, Sun Workstations have traditionally ruled this space but x86 is gaining a serious foothold when considering both W2k/XP and Linux. I could not possibly care less about my workstation's fps benchmark in Half Life 2 or whatever the latest 'ultimate' gaming graphics engine benchmark happens to be. I want a machine that crunches numbers like you've never seen, renders the screen perfectly (no buggy drivers! grrr) and doesn't require me to sell my car to pay for it. I have a hard time seeing any engineering workstation other than those used for gaming development or other highly graphics specific niche markets needing state of the art 3D performance. Please enlighten me if I'm hopelessly misinformed.High-End Desktops, though, are a completely different story. That's gamer land, and I don't think we'll ever see integration work well there because of that segment's demand for flexibility, scalability, and top-notch 3D graphics.
IMHO, it doesn't make much sense to lump High-End Desktops and Workstations into the same pile. They have very different target markets with very different requirements. From the processor standpoint, perhaps, but not from an overall system feature and performance perspective.
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
What a dumb comment, pie chart colors?Anonymous User - Wednesday, September 17, 2003 - link
The lack of consistency in assignment of colours in the pie charts is confusing.example:
In chart #1 No is Red.
In chart #2 No is Green, and yes is Red.