Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site eosp1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!astrovax!fisher!eosp1!lincoln From: lincoln@eosp1.UUCP (Dick Lincoln) Newsgroups: net.micro,net.college Subject: Re: Overloaded Computing Systems Message-ID: <1312@eosp1.UUCP> Date: Fri, 21-Dec-84 10:44:36 EST Article-I.D.: eosp1.1312 Posted: Fri Dec 21 10:44:36 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 22-Dec-84 02:21:07 EST References: <773@amdahl.UUCP> <10468@watmath.UUCP> Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ Lines: 22 Xref: watmath net.micro:8958 net.college:566 > There is no problem keeping my brain fully utilized. One instance > when my brain is clearly underutilized is during those times when > courses require that I work with the computer, and the computer > is so overloaded as to waste a great deal of my time. (Ever typed > 80 characters, stopped, and watched all 80 of them appear on the > screen, one at a time?) To this I object strongly, and it has the > side effect of turning a potentially useful exercise into something > to get quickly out of the way. One simple way to eliminate a significant amount of mainframe cycle usage of the kind you cite is to eliminate "full duplex" (UNIX "raw" mode) terminal drive. Sure, full duplex is convenient, but to cause a full user task context switch just to echo back a keystroke, as is the case for Berkeley "vi", is close to as wasteful as you can be. Large time sharing systems worked for years with IBM 3270 protocol and the like, and supported a full range of applications including text editing and word processing. You need a little more down-loaded intelligence in your terminals to cut down on trivial traffic to your central cpu. While full duplex is no doubt needed for many research projects, mass student text processing, programming and number crunching can certainly be conducted without it.