Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Floating point
Message-ID: <245300015@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 13 Jun 89 17:41:00 GMT
References: <122728@<89157>
Lines: 29
Nf-ID: #R:<89157:122728:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:245300015:000:950
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald    Jun 13 12:41:00 1989


>
>I ask because an aquaintence says that the NeXT is not known for
>its floating point speed, which implies that it is slower than it
>should be, assuming that we know it isn't a Cray.

I compared a Next and a Mac II with my Dell 310 (with 387) on
a large variety of floating point code. The Dell was about
30% to 60% faster than the NeXt which was much faster than the 
MacII. If you want floating speed buy, in descending order of
speed:
    Cray Y-MP
    Cray X-MP
    top Amdahl mainframe
    Mips 3000 or Sun4
    Top of the line 386 PC with a real 32 bit compiler(*) and Weitek 1167/3167
    The following two are tied:
         Top of the line 386 PC with a real 32 bit compiler(*) and 387 
         Top 68030 workstation from HP. Presumably
            Sun and other 68030 folks will tie this very soon.
    NeXt
    Mac II

Whatever you do, don't buy a Vax. 

*MicroWay C or Fortran for DOS  / Gnu cc or better for Unix


Doug McDonald