Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!necntc!ima!johnl From: johnl@ima.ISC.COM (John R. Levine) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: index of Model 30 Message-ID: <774@ima.ISC.COM> Date: Tue, 8-Dec-87 13:46:02 EST Article-I.D.: ima.774 Posted: Tue Dec 8 13:46:02 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 13-Dec-87 06:34:54 EST References: <36300005@iuvax> Reply-To: johnl@ima.UUCP (John R. Levine) Organization: Not enough to make any difference Lines: 16 Summary: Norton SI doesn't mean much In article <36300005@iuvax> bose@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu writes: >The Norton SI index for the PS/2 Model 30 is 1.9. My PC XT has a SI index >of 1.8 with a V20 chip. However the Model 30 seems to run faster. >Can anyone tell me what it is that I am observing? You're observing the oft noted fact that Norton's SI numbers don't mean much. In particular, the value that SI reports is heavily affected by the speed at which a chip can do multiplication instructions, and the V20 multiplies much faster than an 8088 or 8086. But the PS/2 has an 8086 with a 16 bit memory, while the XT has only an 8-bit memory, so that the XT has to make roughly twice as many memory cycles as the PS/2 to do the same work. That's why the PS/2 is faster. -- John R. Levine, IECC, PO Box 349, Cambridge MA 02238-0349, +1 617 492 3869 { ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something The Iran-Contra affair: None of this would have happened if Ronald Reagan were still alive.