🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <25ce13f4.5fd6@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>, jdudeck@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (John R. Dudeck) writes:
> In article <25c86533:4479.2comp.sys.ibm.pc;1@vpnet.UUCP> akcs.amparsonjr@vpnet.UUCP (Anthony M. Parson, Jr.) writes:
>>will say an 80386 (25 mhz) without a coprocessor, is STILL faster by far
>>than the 8088/8087 combination.  Moral: get a fast 80286 or 80386, and
>>possibly save the cost of buying a math coprocessor.  Of course, it depends
> 
> I haven't done any precise comparisons, but I watched a friend run Generic
> CADD 2.0 on his 8mhz luggable XT with a 4 mhz 8087, and then tried running
> the same thing on a Premium/286 10 mhz with no math chip.  There was no
> contest.  The XT won easily.  Now I have a 386/20, and I haven't had a chance
> to do any comparisons.  I also have a math chip.  But I would be willing to
> bet my money on the XT against a 386 with no math chip.
>

We did some timings on computationally intensive programs, with relatively 
little I/O,  on three machines: 1) my 286 with an 8mHz math chip, 2) a 
grad student's machine, a 386, 25 mHz, with cache, no math chip, 3) the
department's 386, 20 mHz, no cache, with a 387 chip (20mHz).  (BTW, all
machines have disk drives running at 28ms, but as I said, the programs
involved relatively little I/O).  The 286/287 combination "timed in" 
at about the same (perhaps 10% slower) as the 386/cache/no chip 
configuration.  The 387/no cache/math chip configuration was 4-5 times 
faster.  I understand that the Intel 387 chip is considerably faster than
the 287 chip (even if we control for speed differences).  This seems to 
bear this out.  I have no timings on a 386sx-387sx combination, but 
I understand the 387sx chip is considerably faster than an equivalent
287 chip.  [This implies that while a 16mHz 386sx machine may not be 
that much faster for most operations than a plain vanilla 12mHz 286,
and perhaps even a bit slower than a 16mHz 286, if it has a 387sx chip
it should be *much* faster than a 286-287 -- perhaps other newsgroup
contributors might care to comment on this].  
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