Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sco!seanf
From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What is a Mainframe?
Message-ID: <2964@scolex.sco.COM>
Date: 1 Jul 89 22:18:57 GMT
References: <125@ssp1.idca.tds.philips.nl> <20752@winchester.mips.COM> <4400@ficc.uu.net> <187@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU> <355@torsqnt.UUCP> <33942@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <27637@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
Reply-To: seanf@scolex.UUCP (Sean Fagan)
Distribution: comp.arch
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Lines: 31

In article <27637@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> brooks@maddog.llnl.gov (Eugene Brooks) writes:
>Okay, I will bite on this!  Here are elapsed times in seconds for
>the unpacking of a source archive on some representative machines.
>
>MACHINE and OS				TIME in SEC
>Cray YMP running NLTSS				40
>Cray XMP4/16 running LTSS			5
>SUN2/50 DISKLESS SUNOS 3.4			10.8
>SUN3/50 DISKLESS SUNOS 4.0.1			6.9
>SUN3 WITH DISK SUNOS 4.0.1			2.7

Real-time seconds, or system-time seconds?  How loaded were each of the
machines?  What kind of archive?  What program was unarchiving them?  Any
chance that the YMP had the archive on a disk over ethernet (I *hope* not!)?

>Which is the mainframe? Which would you rather compile and load a program on?

I'd rather compile on the Cray's, thank you very much.  Of course, on the
Cray's, I'd also rather program in FORTRAN, not C (assembly would not even
be my first choice on those machines).

I can, if you wish, come up with other numbers (such as, for example, how
long it takes to compiler SPICE on a Sun 2 and 4, versus compiling in on
a CDC Cyber 170/760.  Incidently, the Cyber was at least an order of
magnitude faster); one set of numbers, with no other information, is not a
good indicator.

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  |    "Uhm, excuse me..."
seanf@sco.UUCP   |      -- James T. Kirk (William Shatner), ST V: TFF
(408) 458-1422   | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.