🚀 go-pugleaf

Dan Pop (Dan.Pop@mail.cern.ch) wrote:
: In <3vjsjj$6ah@newsbf02.news.aol.com> donrawlins@aol.com (DonRawlins) writes:
[snipt]
: >Some noteworthy
: >journalists have even gone so far as to declare the PPC6xx architecture
: >"dead".  The most optimistic concede defeat in 1994 but claim the Power
: >architecture may still have hope to become mainstream in late 1995 and
: >1996; an opinion that is more wishful thinking than prudent judgement.

: How much are the journalists' opinions worth?  Most of the time we get
: only bullshit from them.


The publisher of the MicroProcessor Report has made statements along this 
line. Ironically, I think that it shows a certain lack of understanding 
on his part.


VERY ironically, if you think about it, even a little bit.

He was basing his remarks on the first reports of benchmarks on the 
604-based systems, without taking into account the fact that the 
IntelExpress is only available to INtel employees at an employee discount 
that brings their price down the the price of a top-of-the-line Compaq.

He also didnt' take into account the fact that the 601 is known to 
contain instructions that, if used, slow down the 604 because the 
processor must trap and emulate them.

He also ignored the fact that compiler-writers for Intel's compiler for the 
Pentium have had several years to produce a fully-optimizing compiler, 
whereas the compiler-writers for IBM, Motorola and Apple (Metrowerks, 
Symantec, etc as well) have had less than a year to produce an optimizing 
compiler for the 604.


As I said, it is *really* ironic that the publisher of the Microprocessor 
Report wouldn't take these issues into account before he made public 
statements, but it just proves that everyone can shoot their mouth off 
before thinking, even prominent journalists in a technical field whose 
reputation depends on them NOT shooting off their mouth.


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Lawson English                            __  __     ____  ___       ___ ____
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