Re: Killer Micros and vectorized code

Article View: comp.arch

Article #3533

#3533

From: Philip Machanick
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 1990 23:48

20 lines
1830 bytes

In article <00933EBB.E972FCA0@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU>, sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU
(Doug Mohney) writes:

> If shared resources are such wonderful critters, how come multiuser Macs
> aren't popular? Or '386es? You could conceivably hang multiple terminals
> from a '386 or '486 box, but I haven't heard of people rushing out to do so.

Predictable response time...This is also (one of the reasons, anyway) why
Apple does not support pre-emptive multi-tasking. I'm using a 16Mbyte
DECstation 3100 and despite the faster processor, it doesn't compare with
a 68030 Mac on user interface reponsiveness. And the DECstation is hardly ever
used by other users. Moral of the story? A multi-tasking OS with virtual memory
etc. has its price. Of course, if you aren't doing much "interactive" stuff
(e.g., large-scale compiles or number crunching), the trade-offs are
different. I would go with a Mac as a user interface engine (scrap the
X-terminal idea), with a networked high-speed machine (or machines) to do the
number crunching, large-scale file system, database etc.

Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu

Technical Details

Message-ID: <1990Mar19.234839.13829@Neon.Stanford.EDU>

Path:

arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!sun-barr!decwrl!shelby!neon!Kermit.Stanford.EDU!philip

References: <00933EBB.E972FCA0@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> <51771@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <100598@convex.convex.com>,<52661@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!sun-barr!decwrl!shelby!neon!Kermit.Stanford.EDU!philip
From: philip@Kermit.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Killer Micros and vectorized code
Message-ID: <1990Mar19.234839.13829@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 19 Mar 90 23:48:39 GMT
References: <00933EBB.E972FCA0@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> <51771@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <100598@convex.convex.com>,<52661@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
Sender: news@Neon.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System)
Reply-To: philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 20

Reply to Parent Message