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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc.
DELL 125.35+3.7%9:57 AM EST

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To: Techie who wrote (46586)6/7/1998 11:05:00 PM
From: Meathead  Read Replies (1) of 176388
 
Techie, not sure what you mean about pricing but the software
itself is exorbitantly expensive. The cheapest software tool
I use is APSIM RLGC and it costs $5,000 per license. It's not
much more than a glorified transmission line RLC calculator.

The average cost per license of the tools we use to design PC's
is about $40,000. We have over a hundred licences of these
various tools so we don't even blink at the hardware costs
of 5-10k per box for Wintel workstations. It's about time
too, the Sun boxes were way too expensive by comparison.

Pro/E in it's various forms is one type of tool we use
where I work. We had been running on Sun Ultra's
(about 25k apiece) until they successfully ported to NT.

The minimum hardware requirements are somewhat of a joke.
Yes, you can theoretically run this software with 64-96MB
of ram and a 133Mhz pentium. The reality however requires
about 256MB of ram and a 300Mhz PentiumII at a minimum.
This will get you barely acceptable performance. But it
really goes beyond these basic CPU speed/RAM size metrics
we are all used to. Fast/Wide SCSI capability is also desired.

A dual 450Mhz P2 with >256MB ram with the right very high
dollar video solution is preferred.... but still too slow
for mechanical engineers.

Really acceptable performance on an NT 5.0 platform should
come next year with Willamette, RAMBUS and AGP4X or AGP pro.

My work is concentrated in electrical simulation but I work
closely with the mechanical guys who gripe and complain
constantly about current hardware capabilities. I have the
same problem with my suite of software tools... too slow on
current state-of-the-art hardware.

Anyway, the workstation market is going to be huge for Dell,
Intel and anybody else (CPQ, HWP, IBM etc.) selling into this
demand.

Watch as the overall percentage of desktop revenue continues to
shrink for Dell. I bet it goes to 50% within 24 months.

MEATHEAD
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