Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!voder!pyramid!csg
From: csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: What?  I'm confused. Sequent their strengths & weaknesses
Message-ID: <83733@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Date: 9 Sep 89 00:02:37 GMT
References: <17580@bellcore.bellcore.com> <5053@eos.UUCP> <11500@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 18

In article <11500@boulder.Colorado.EDU> rsk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Rich Kulawiec) writes:
>Here's the deal:
>
>If you and I each launch a dozen processes or so on a ten processor
>machine, the kernel scheduler worries about which to run where, and
>silently handles getting our 24 jobs done on 10 processors.

In other words, the answer to the original question is, "the Sequent works
just like your NCR system." The big difference is the Sequent (and Arete,
Encore, Elxsi, and Pyramid) run symmetric multiprocessors, while NCR (and
CCI, DEC, and a bunch of others) run master/slave. 

The above machines are all general purpose multi-user UNIX boxes that simply
use multiple CPUs as a cost effective way to boost multi-tasking performance.
Generally, if your objective is to do "real" parallel processing, buy a ma-
chine designed for the job: Multiflow, BB&N Butterfly, et al. 

<csg>