Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!edwards From: edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Many Questions/ some answers Message-ID: <750@uwmacc.UUCP> Date: Fri, 19-Dec-86 09:11:12 EST Article-I.D.: uwmacc.750 Posted: Fri Dec 19 09:11:12 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 20-Dec-86 00:22:39 EST References: <650@imsvax.UUCP> <1373@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> Reply-To: edwards@unix.macc.wisc.edu.UUCP (mark edwards) Organization: UW-Madison Academic Computer Center Lines: 29 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 I could have heard wrong, but even so, I can buy lots of 386's and even more 286's for the price of a VAX 780 and then what about the maintenance. Given that Universities get big discounts on all the DEC equipment it still costs lots of money for maintenance. I can afford to buy an entire replacement 286 a couple times over for the maintenance one pays for the Vax 780. 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. 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. mark -- edwards@unix.macc.wisc.edu {allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!edwards UW-Madison, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706