Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-lcc!ames!cit-vax!news From: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Usenet netnews) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Many Questions/ some answers Message-ID: <1383@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> Date: Fri, 19-Dec-86 16:16:07 EST Article-I.D.: cit-vax.1383 Posted: Fri Dec 19 16:16:07 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 20-Dec-86 02:36:15 EST References: <650@imsvax.UUCP> <1373@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <750@uwmacc.UUCP> Reply-To: tim@tomcat.UUCP (Tim Kay) Organization: California Institute of Technology Lines: 48 Organization : California Institute of Technology Keywords: From: tim@tomcat.Caltech.Edu (Tim Kay) Path: tomcat!tim In article <750@uwmacc.UUCP> edwards@unix.macc.wisc.edu.UUCP (mark edwards) writes: >In article <1373@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> tim@tomcat.caltech.edu (Tim Kay) writes: >>Next, I can't see how PCs are competing with minis and mainframes. An >>80[23]86 at 8 or even 16Mhz still doesn't pack a fraction of the >>computing power of a Vax 11/780. And, for the work I do, a Vax is >>a small machine. A 3090/400 is roughly 50 times as powerful. >> > From what I heard the 386 has the CPU power of a VAX 780, of course If all you need to do is non-floating point calculations, an 80386 might be about as fast as a 780. However, the throughput of a 780 is much higher. I don't know the particular numbers for a 386, but take a 68020/68881 like a Sun III/160. I run non-floating point, and it runs about 2 times a 780. If I run floating point, it runs about 1/11th the speed of a 780. Also, a Sun can't do disk i/o very fast. > The nice thing about PC's is that when we have 30 people using all > our PC resources ( resource = 1 pc ) the pc doesn't bog down. This > is not true for the VAX, if 30 people were using a VAX 780, well > I usually log off then I can almost do the work by hand better. I am not sure I understand your "( resource = 1 pc )" comment. If it means that all 30 people are using 1 PC, then I'll ask you to compare your PC to a 780 running in single-user mode. You'll find that it doesn't bog down and it runs much faster at the same time. On the other hand, if you mean that you have a PC per person, I would agree that 30 PC's is more computing power than a 780. > You may need your own powerful machine for your purposes, but > most people do not, and a PC on their desk is more than enough > computing power, and very cheap computing power at that. My posting was in response to another comment that PC's are cutting in on IBM's mainframe market, and I wanted to suggest that this simply isn't so. I'd like to hear other points of view regarding this assertion. I like PC's, and I am typing this on one now. Timothy L. Kay tim@csvax.caltech.edu Department of Computer Science Caltech, 256-80 Pasadena, CA 91125