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Paul thanks for the input. I was one of the first people to buy the original IBM PC when it came out. My somewhat foggy memory is that it cost me over $4000. At that time, one dealer had a monopoly on sales.The machine could do very little, required me to learn some minimal Basic programing skills, but by G-- it was a real computer and it was mine. I've been fascinated with computers ever since. I'm an easy sell, but usually want 50% or more benchmark improvement before buying a new one. My newest, a PII 200 MMx ,barely met this level over my P100. I would suspect the backward compatibility is there to make more software available initially and to ease the transition. (much as the DOS - Windows transition) except hopefully the improvements will be in speed as well as interface design.The introduction of Merced will probably represent the end of new X86 development. As the X86 brought in the 1980's , the Merced will bring in the new millineum. I had assumed that the components like mother board, chip sets, sound cards, Rambus memory, etc. will initially be low volume and a good bit more expensive than you suggest, but time will tell.What little information is available from Intel at this point suggests that initially Merced is not aimed at individual consumers. The Merced will be the system when it becomes available, and having it running on someone elses software is just the kind of humiliation needed to make Microsoft deliver new software. We need both Microdsoft and Intel on board to get lots of new software for personal home office users. |
