Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!maytag!watdcsu!pfratar
From: pfratar@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Paul Frattaroli - Department of Computing Services)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Norton Si
Summary: Yah, tell me about it.
Message-ID: <6271@watdcsu.waterloo.edu>
Date: 1 Sep 89 18:24:00 GMT
References: <478@v7fs1.UUCP> <224@orchid.warwick.ac.uk> <1989Aug25.162653.25755@ziebmef.mef.org> <408@nosun.UUCP>
Reply-To: pfratar@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Paul Frattaroli - Department of Computing Services)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 34

In article <408@nosun.UUCP> neighorn@nosun.UUCP (Steven C. Neighorn - SE Sun/PDX) writes:
>In article <1989Aug25.162653.25755@ziebmef.mef.org> stephen@ziebmef.mef.org (Stephen M. Dunn) writes:
>>   Of course, there have been many complaints about the fact that Norton's
>>SI seems skewed in favour of 286s (and higher) due to a (perhaps) inappropriate
>>choice of benchmarking algorithm.  I don't know if any adjustments have been
>>made or not.
>
>"inappropriate" is an understatement. I shudder to think how many
>computer salesmen and advertisements and jokers who don't know what they
>are talking about quote that good old Norton SI number.
>
>It is just less than completely useless!
[ stuff deleted ]

Tell me about it!  I have a PS/2 mod 25,  I get a rating of 1.9 unless I move
my mouse around.  When I move my mouse around while it is testing I get 1.6.

I just don't think that a true benchmark should depend on what you also
have running at the current time.  Perhaps some TSR's could change the
rating still further.  I think a true benchmark comparison should take into
account everything your system can do at once not just... how fast can it
run when these other things are running?

For example, how much faster would my system be if it didn't have to keep
track of a clock? no interrupts while testing? 100% hit rate caching? etc.

Just a thought.
....Paul F

-- 
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            Paul Frattaroli - Department of Computing Services
                        University of Waterloo
< pfratar@watshine.waterloo.edu >         < pfratar@watdcsu.waterloo.edu >