1st April 1998It seems that, sadly, there are more and more reasons for me to have to buy a (Spit!) PC in the near future.
One of these is that some mail order companies, such as RS (electronics and other hardware) no longer produce a paper catalogue (It used to be in three volumes for about 42,000 products), and prefer to issue it on CD-ROM.
I'm all for CD-ROMs, but the trusty old 8-bit Acorns won't run them.
The real question is can I hold off having to get a PC 'till the processor is a RISC one which uses very little power and requires no heatsink or fan, like the Apple Mac and Acorn RISC PC processors?
It is this transition to RISC, with PC techie experts having acknowledged that the limits of CISC Pentiums have almost been reached, which is a good reason not to but a PC for the next two or three years, if possible.
It would represent a major technology change, with all existing PCs becoming obsolete, as Windows would have to be completely rewritten for RISC architecture. Out of the window goes MMX technology, which was a "let's make the processor even more CISC than before" feature.
I don't think it would be possible to simply put all the new RISC bits in a socket-7 box to plug into the Pentium II slot on the motherboard, as RISC affects the whole philosophy and aim of the computer hardware and software architecture.
If you thought Pentium II machines for under a thousand pounds were good, wait until they're under five hundred. I predict that the change to RISC will stun the PC world as much as the Millennium bug.
Of course, there are other reasons for having a PC. Among them:
- Running PCB-design CAD packages
- The Internet (It's very easy to get addicted)
- Games (Not a personal reason - the ones on the BBC are good enough)
- Lots more fonts and proportional-width word processing
- Spreadsheets have variable column widths (I wish it were easier to do it in Viewsheet)
- Better screen resolution, with more colours
However, most of these can be done just as well by a Mac or Acorn machine, and Macs are well-known for being better for CAD applications.
At least I have one very good excuse not to buy a PC soon - I haven't any more space in my room. It will have to wait 'till I've bought my own house, and then of course I'll have no cash for a while, as it will be taken up by decorating and buying furniture.
Before I can buy a PC, I'll have to buy a table to put it on, so this will delay the purchase for a year or two. Problem solved!
In the meantime, I'll continue to make the Master 128 do as much as possible - but will a 522-address database suffice?
Mark Bellis
I've used the RS catalogue on CD-ROM. It's quite good if you know what you want but it's a pain for browsing. There are some interesting tools such as "Search" but I found these were not too good. I asked for a list of all the LS chips, and none were found. I asked for specific chips: none. These are in there but the search just couldn't locate them. I probably did something wrong but who cares? I just got out the Farnel catalogue.
CD-ROMs are, in my opinion, the top reason for buying a PC. Second is the Internet. Some of the titles are really interesting.
I think I've said before I have a 386 PC so neither of these is available to me. I have a word processor on it but prefer the quickness of my Elk. I find most PC word processors take too much for granted and seem to be so complicated to use. I hate those error windows. I sometimes want to punch the screen! If it's so good, why can't it tell me how I should do something?
Thanks for your tip about RISC. I have been thinking for a while about getting another PC and have held off because my suspicions about this millennium bug made me think it was a preamble to the launch of some new machine.
Your comment about a table is also interesting. Those so-called Palm top PCs are a bit of a joke. It could be that there will eventually be a full-feature PC which will have true protability, so making the previous models obsolete.
Gus Donnachaidh, EUG #37
