[rescue] Help needed with Sun V65x

[Andrew Jones]

On 02/18/2014 04:01 PM, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
> It seems rather obvious in retrospect, that the low-end doesn't
> really cannibalize the high end.
>
> If Sun was really all about "the cloud" or "grid computing" then
> obviously selling a bunch of 1Ghz US IIIi in a motherboard with 4
> DIMM slots (max 8 or 16GB), 2 gigabit interfaces, onboard SCSI or
> SATA and 1 or 2 PCI slots isn't going to stop a buyer who wants a big
> technical workstation or needs a huge bunch of IO.  And they could
> have been profitable selling them for $995 (assuming the Netra X1 was
> profitable at that price point).
>
> But as much as I like Jonathan Schwartz and some of his ideas, the
> execution and strategic decision-making of Sun during those years
> wasn't very good...
> Cheers
>
> Patrick

Even if the Netra was profitable, it was profitable because the US IIe 
was a small, cheap, slow chip at the time it was made.

They were selling $995 USIIe systems right next to the $25,000 USIIIi 
units. On the USIII and USIV, I really doubt they could have gotten the 
yields up or prices down, or they would have done it.