🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug7.024301.20079@schbbs.mot.com> P70008@WACCVM.corp.mot.com writes:
>We are thinking about purchasing a number of i486 machines and had heard
>about problems with the i486DX-50.  Are these problems solved?

Old, old problem correct many moons ago. 

>Should we go with a i486DX2-50/25 instead.  We will be using the
>machines as Workstations (most of them running Windows).
>

BAPCo will have some of the information that would help you
make your decision.

The Business Applications Performance Corporation (BAPCo) is an
organization of companies (AMD, Chips&Tech, Dell, DEC, 
Gateway 2000, HP, IBM, Infoworld, Intel, Lotus, Microsoft,
NCR, Novell, NSTL, and Ziff-Davis Labs) developing business
applicaton benchmarks to measure system performance.  The
first benchmark suite was recently released and for $795 includes
the installation and measurement tools, the applications being
measured (DOS, Windows 3.0, WFW, Wordperfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Excel,
Quattro Pro, dBASE IV, Paradox, Harvard Graphics, PageMaker,
Borland C++, Microsoft C).

The first BAPCo Newsletter is nearing publication and I have
pulled out the "best of breed" system results submitted by the 
member companies and have included them below.  These are the 
systems results with the best times foreach of the processors 
reported so far.  I think there will be approximately 40 system 
results in the first Newsletter.  The BAPCo reporting rules 
require that these results be easily reproduceable and therefore 
must be on a system that is being currently sold by the manufacturer.

The Report which is published 4 times a year is $250 per year.

Call BAPCo for more information:
Phone (408) 988-7654

Metrics are relative to a standard machine and so bigger is better.
SYSmark92 is the overall metric, but one should characterize the
application workload and choose machines that make sense for them.

    CPU       FPU  CLK   Mem Cache  SYSmark92  WP  SS  DB  DG  DP  SD 
Intel486DX    Int  50   12MB 128KB    187     171 175 188 215 195 303
Intel486DX2   Int 25/50 12MB  None    154     139 153 131 196 164 243
Intel486DX    Int  33    8MB 128KB    131     124 124 124 141 139 205
IBM486SLC2 CX387SX 20/40 8MB  None    100      93  99  84 114 112 148
Intel486SX    None 25   12MB  None     97      89  92  85 121 108 155
AM386DX       None 40    8MB  64KB     84      77  81  83  94  87 125
Intel486SX    None 20    8MB 128KB     82      75  78  75  96  88 123
Intel386DX    None 33    8MB  64KB     77      71  72  74  95  79 114
IBM386SLC  CX387SX 20    8MB  None     57      52  58  50  62  67  86
Intel386DX    None 25    8MB  64KB     55      51  53  51  60  59  82
AM386SX       None 25   10MB  None     40      38  35  41  49  44  58
Intel386SX CX387SX 20    8MB  None     35      33  35  31  38  40  51
                                  
WP - wordprocessing (WordPerfect, WFW)
SS - spreadsheet (1-2-3, Excel, QuattroPro)
DB - data base (dBase, Paradox)
DG - desktop graphics (Harvard Graphics)
DP - desktop publishing (PageMaker)
SD - S/W development (Borland C++, MS C)

SYSmark92 is a weighted mean of the 6 application catogory results.
The weighting was determined by survey results that BAPCo contracted
to have performed.  It weighs the things that a typical users 
does most frequently most heavily.  The survey results were used to 
determine the composition of the workloads.  They were designed to
match the things that users said they were doing.

Since these benchmarks are based on the same applications that many use
the computer for, they should more accurately reflect the system
performance one would see than small synthetic benchmarks with "unrealistic"
instruction mixes such as Landmark and PC Magazine type of benchmarks.


>If all is OK with the i486DX-50, why doesn't Compaq or IBM have any
>systems?...any and all comments welcome.

We had a Compaq 50 MHz system delivered yesterday.  We have a couple 
50 MHz machines in the lab.  My only comment would be why would one
say they have no 50 MHz machines?
>
>-Bill
Rod Skinner				I speak for myself only.
Intel Corp
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