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From: cdshaw@watrose.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.college
Subject: Re: Overloaded Computing Systems
Message-ID: <7195@watrose.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-Jan-85 17:47:10 EST
Article-I.D.: watrose.7195
Posted: Mon Jan  7 17:47:10 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Jan-85 03:13:59 EST
References: <773@amdahl.UUCP> <10468@watmath.UUCP> <1312@eosp1.UUCP> <4844@utzoo.UUCP>
Reply-To: cdshaw@watrose.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
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Xref: watmath net.micro:9012 net.college:616

The last time I used an IBM 4341 (approx CPU power of a VAX 780) with
80 users (active) to do editing on a 3278, there was a minimal degree
of I/O wait involved. XEDIT was the editor, and I had configured it as
I preferred it, so as to remove some silly quirks.

The last time I used a VAX 780 with 80 users on it, I woke up regretting
the pizza I ate earlier that night. Seriously... the turnaround was sooooo
bad I went home.

The point is this.. mainframe channel-style architecture exacts a small
convenience price for a huge performance improvement.
Real life has confirmed this many times over for me, and that's why I'd
rather use VM/CMS for editing than vi and 4.2bsd, especially if system load
is a problem.

Wether the performance improvement is due to full duplex or not, I cannot
answer, but I can type and read input simultaneously on a 3278, so it looks
all the same to me !!!

				This point of information brought to you by..
					CD Shaw