Thread View: comp.sys.transputer
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Started by Moshe Braner
Tue, 19 Sep 1989 13:52
Re: Relative performance of T800 and other machines - update.
Author: Moshe Braner
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1989 13:52
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1989 13:52
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The T800 is starting to lag behind some in speed, but its cost effectiveness is actually improving. The cost of an 8-node system should drop below $5000 in the next few months given the dropping RAM prices and the recent drastic cut in T800 pricing. The main cost factor would be your RAM requirements. That $1000 price for the PC host is a bit unfair if you need more I/O capacity, etc. You may want a $3000 386-based host. But that's still relatively cheap. But what will happen when the m88000 and i860 drop in price, as is bound to happen some day? - Moshe Braner
Re: Relative performance of T800 and other machines - update.
Author: Hubert Matthews
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1989 11:05
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1989 11:05
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In article <8909191352.AA03741@tpot.tn.cornell.edu> braner@TPOT.TN.CORNELL.EDU (Moshe Braner) writes: >The main cost factor would be your RAM requirements. That has always been the case, and will continue to be the case for some time. CPU power is relatively cheap; large memories are not. >That $1000 price for the PC host is a bit unfair if you need more I/O >capacity, etc. You may want a $3000 386-based host. But that's >still relatively cheap. And the I/O capability doesn't scale as the CPU power does. Compare the ratio of CPU power to I/O bandwidth for an XT and a wizzo 386 box and you'll see what I mean. Too may people seem to look purely at CPU speed and not enough people seem to look at overall system performance. Why is the Logical Systems C compiler for the transputer a cross-compiler? Because passing the compiler and the source files over to the transputer is slower than using the PC to do the compilation locally. >But what will happen when the m88000 and i860 drop in price, as is >bound to happen some day? Prices for these new boards will probably be dictated by RAM prices, just like other boards. If you are hanging one of these boards on a PC, then you *need* a lot of memory to compensate for the host's poor I/O speed. (Try running a virtual memory system from a RISC board via a PC disk!). Look at the numbers for a typical RISC machine: $400 for the CPU, $300 for the caches (quite a variable cost), and $3000 for 16 MB of RAM. That's just raw chip costs, without counting board space and power consumption. Follow-ups have been redirected to comp.arch, as this discussion seems to be more general than just transputers. -- Hubert Matthews ...helping make the world a quote-free zone... hjm@cernvax.cern.ch hjm@vxomeg.decnet.cern.ch ...!mcvax!cernvax!hjm
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