🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec8.205422.746@qb.rhein-main.de> vhs@rhein-main.de (Volker  
Herminghaus-Shirai) writes:
[...]
> MIPS for computer chips is just as meaningless as revs/min is for
> car engines, especially if they are claimed by intel.

True.

[...]
> Never trust anything before SPECint92/SPECfp92 (not that they are
> especially trustworthy...).

Not really. For example on superscalar processors (SPARC) this isn't a good
test, either.

[some good comments which I can agree with deleted...]

One thing I will never understand:
People tend to "measure" their cars in terms of horsepower and speed,
their houses in squaremeters, their girlfriends in (...) ... and
finally their computers in terms of "MIPS".

As a statistican once said: "We don't know what to measure and why --
but we do a damn good job on it!"

But "performance" and "usability" is a much more complex topic.
Terms as functionality, integrity, robustness and psychologic
impacts are MUCH more relevant to it as any speed. For example I work
MUCH more productive (objectively) on my NeXT as I do on a big MVS
system or even a DEC. (Though they are much "faster") Of course
sometimes I am waiting for my NeXT (at the moment my swapfile is about
60 MByte big) and some jobs require a higher speed (Mathematica,
rendering and some other jobs) -- but who of us really needs that?

Most of the time my system is waiting for me -- not vice versa.

You always need the right tool for the right purpose. Same with cars. A
friend drives a Porsche 928 Cabrio -- quite fast car with many HP -- but
once you had to sit in the back you start hating it. No family car. (And
in the US you couldn't even drive it fast...)

	Just my impression, Gerhard.
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