XPost: sci.space.policy, sci.physics, sci.electronics.design   
   From: jfindley@cinci.nospam.rr.com   
      
   In article , krw@notreal.com   
   says...   
   > The point is that CAD on minicomputers was very minimal.  It was the   
   > domain of the mainframe.  Rubylith was the tool of choice for the   
   > electronics industry.   
   >   
      
   I've worked on CAE software that's tightly integrated with CAD my entire   
   professional life.  Back in about 1988 our CAD/CAE software still ran on   
   mainframes (IBM, DEC, and etc.) but the transition to Unix workstations   
   was in its infancy.  Back then, PCs were "toys" that quite simply   
   couldn't handle professional level CAD/CAE software.   
      
   In the early 1990s Unix Workstations dominated for running CAD/CAE   
   software.  A good SGI "box" would run you about $20k in early 1990s   
   dollars (about $33k today).   
      
   Today, you can comfortably run CAD/CAE software (at least the CAE   
   pre/post) on a sub $2k PC running Windows OS.  But many customers will   
   go quite a bit over $2k with things like solid state drives and 64 GB or   
   more of RAM coupled with the best professional graphics card money can   
   buy (no, they're not quite the same as consumer/gaming cards).  Still,   
   the most "decked out" PC workstation today will still cost a fraction of   
   what a Unix workstation used to cost in the early 1990s.   
      
   So again, we see yet another example of improving technologies driving   
   down costs in a market.   
      
   Jeff   
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