Color SPARCstation 1+ fast enough without GX?

[Laurence R. Brothers]

As one who has used 4/60's with and without GX boards, I would say that
GXless IS "fast enough", but that is slower than most other machines.  For
example, the 3100 benchmarks X operations much much faster than a regular
Sun color machine. The GX just blazes for some applications, and in
general speeds up performance to comparable levels.

Sun reps say that the GX is not really NEEDED for regular applications,
and they are mostly right, but it is certainly DESIRED.

Note that the 470 color machine comes by default with GX; clearly it is
somewhat embarrassing to have high end machines that are so bound by the
graphics I/O. 

In general, I would have to say that the current state of Sun graphics
hardware is an embarrassment to the company. You shouldn't have to pay out
many $K to an outside vendor to get speedy graphics performance. I saw the
TC board for a short time, too, and wasn't very impressed with it.

	         Laurence R. Brothers (quasar at bellcore.com)
      Bellcore -- Computer Technology Transfer -- Knowledge-Based Systems
		These opinions are my own and not my company's