Re: Intellasys question for Jeff Fox

Gwenhwyfaen, Forth should be simple.  So let's simplify the
argument.

For argument's sake let's say you and I are on a design team
for a new widget.  (I know you'd probably rather drink a 
sawdust shake, but humor me.)  Let's say that we have
advanced funding to make 10,000 of these widgets.
That's important because a MOSIS fab run (who Jeff
used to fab the F21) has a cheaper per unit cost as the
number of chips being made goes up.  Let's say that
we've already decided that we really only need 16 bits
of precision.  20 bits is overkill.  32 bits is WAY overkill.
A 65 bit floating point mantissa is EXTREME overkill.
For whatever reason we need transcendental functions.
Maybe we want simple 3D graphics, or maybe we're
building a GPS widget with onscreen mapping.

Also for the sake of argument let's say it's the mid
1990's and we can still buy 386/387's cheaply off
the shelf say for $20.00.  (I don't recall what the
price of 386/387's fell to before they were finally
phased out.)  When we contact Ultratechnology
and/or iTV and price their chips we are told that
if we buy 10,000 chips we can get them at a
cost of $10.00 per chip.  We also want to make
sure that the chip we use can do the transcendental
functions AT LEAST as fast as a 386/387.  
Please answer the following 2 questions.

Question 1:  Why should I care what the price of
ONE F21 is when we want to purchase TEN 
THOUSAND?  Buying ONE F21 doesn't take
advantage of the economy of scale.

Question 2:  Why should I care that the 386/387
is doing the calculations at a higher precision
than the F21 when we've already decided that
we don't need that much precision?

There you go.  Two very simple questions.
Forget John Passiniti or anybody else.

Regards,

John M. Drake

----- Original Message ----
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 10:23:45 PM
Subject: Re: [colorforth] Intellasys question for Jeff Fox

John, I'm afraid that at this point I have no idea what you're talking
about or who you're arguing with - because as far as I can see you're
not actually responding to what I wrote at all. That being the case,
there is also nothing I could possibly say which would actually have
any effect on the image of me with which you are so intent on doing
battle - because that image has too little connection with reality.
Maybe that's because I have not expressed myself well; if that's the
case, I apologise. Or maybe it isn't; maybe the fault does not lie
entirely with me.

Whichever the case might be, I don't think there is any point in the
continuation of this correspondence. We're not communicating anyway;
why continue to try?

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