To: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
From: Mike Piff <M DOT Piff AT sheffield DOT ac DOT uk>
Date: 31 Mar 94 12:00:23
Subject: Re: computer architecture and speed
Reply-To: Mike Piff <M DOT Piff AT sheffield DOT ac DOT uk>

From:          "Chris Mr. Tangerine Man Tate" <FIXER AT FAXCSL DOT DCRT DOT NIH DOT GOV>

%%>The true architecture description for the Pentium is non-disclosure?
%%>You're right; Intel is an ass.  And foolish, to boot.  You can buy the
%%>PowerPC architecture spec from Motorola for $10, and learn a lot more
%%>than you ever wanted to know about pipeline stalls and instruction
%%>dependancies.  That there is nothing similar available from Intel
%%>smells suspiciously like FUD to me.  :-/
%%>

Careful! Some asses kick! Especially the biggest ones!

I seem to remember though that it was Intel machines that first became really
affordable, not Motorola.  Not so long ago, we had:

**very expensive   Unix machines MC68k
**expensive        Apple Mac     MC68k
**affordable       MSDOS         80x86

And the situation isn't much different now, is it?  Except that Apple
eventually had to compete with MSDOS when people like Alan Sugar started to
market cheapo PCs over here, and Atari (Tramiel?) launched his ultra-cheapo
Mac-alike. (We also had to endure worse horrors from Acorn!)

However, I *do* agree that the MC68k is a better memory manager!

As for timings...

Our computer officer recently ran some benchmark calculations. Here are his
results: (the lower the better)

    SPARC LX     22.1
    SPARC 10/40  12.8
    SGA (silver)  3.6  (using cc)
    Compare/Contrast with your 29 for 4DX266.

(The last figure was my GNU C figure.)

Mike Piff



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%% Dr M J Piff, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of %%
%% Sheffield, UK.                    e-mail: M DOT Piff AT sheffield DOT ac DOT uk %%
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