Hardware - The Future, the present and the past
I thought I might join the discussions at this point with a few PERSONAL observations - not to be confused at all with Hi-Grade policy.
Some of what I say is in the form of Devil's Advocate, some maybe a little cynical (that's me), but hopefully I will raise some points for discussion and consideration.
First of all Information Technology and it's associated hardware WILL move on.
An obvious statement but one we must not loose sight of.
Looking at what has happened to date and how it has affected today is a valid exercise and somewhere to start.
My machine, and remember I work for a company working, developing and producing on the front edge of technology, runs FAT 32, Windows 95b, Office 97 with that wonderful 'Assistant', in-line spelling and grammar, and a beta version of the latest Explorer desktop development, in 1024 x 768 Res. It is fully multimedia and I use it to understand and provide student support for most programmes that assessors recommend. In fact the only programmes I cannot run at the moment are the Voice programmes like Kertweil and Simply Speaking.
My 3Yr old machine's spec is 486DX 66 64mb RAM with a 3Yr old Monitor, no PCI slots, Visa type motherboard etc.
The point?
95% of the machines I build for students could be the same spec. Cost ? Last year we had several opportunities to buy up 'old stock' of 486DX66 8MbRAM machines with up to date motherboards including PCI slots for under str300, add a monitor for say stl145 and then upgrade the RAM to 16 (for speed) for say stl 55 - machine costs stl500. Yes I did get one of these machines and it is now my children's study machine and Yes it does run all the up to date software except the voice software. The only extra it has is the 16 Mb RAM.
OR
If my machine was supplied to a student 3Yrs ago it would still be a valid machine.
The real point?
Advances in hardware are very exciting and open up the door of opportunity in many areas, however how much 'new' hardware is required to adequately compensate for an individuals disability when software does most, if not all, the work? - Please discuss in not less than.......
Other points
My machine when new cost stl 1100 ! Today for that money you would get a supper dupper machine capable of leaving my machine in the dust. Equally if you stay 6 to 9 months behind current technology the technology cost comes down to meet the price of current machines.
New software stays backward compatible (relating to hardware) for some time, otherwise there is no breakeven market, and remains stable in pricing if not dropping to establish market share.
If you start from the point - What do I want the equipment to do? - then ask what is the minimum spec I need to achieve this, the results can be surprising! and could involve Works on 311 using a 386! (try to buy that!)
Practicality - my nightmare. During the early days of Win'95, while DOS622Win311 was still being supplied I had endless calls from students telling me the machine had broken down when they upgraded to Win'95. Nothing wrong with the machine of course. Regular call telling me that the machine doesn't work with such and such piece of equipment. True! ( in the past I have been told that the Pentium a student bought wouldn't fit in the 486 machine we supplied!)
In the hands of the student the machine is perceived as the ultimate in technology being able to do everything the marketing people say is necessary to run their supper dupper add-ons. In this environment a 486 would be positively dangerous (to my health). BUT IS THIS A POINT THAT NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERED?
Congratulation on persevering to this point I hope you can add to the discussions so that all points of view can come to light when decisions are taken
Peter Childs
Hi-Grade Computers
Southampton
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