Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!mcnc!wolves!ggw From: ggw@wolves.uucp (Gregory G. Woodbury) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Speed Kills Summary: solution time! Message-ID: <1990Jun14.021608.15613@wolves.uucp> Date: 14 Jun 90 02:16:08 GMT References: <447@garth.UUCP> Reply-To: ggw@wolves.UUCP (Gregory G. Woodbury) Followup-To: comp.arch Distribution: comp Organization: Wolves Den UNIX Lines: 38 In article <447@garth.UUCP> fouts@bozeman.ingr.com (Martin Fouts) writes: > > In the same chapter he recalled that it took "about an afternoon" to > wire up Eniac to solve a simple system of linear equations. (let's > call that 4 hours.) I would claim that it currently takes the same > length of time to write the program and/or enter the data needed to > solve a system of equations of about the same size. However, I'll be > willing to give you that a "power user" with the data on line and a > good canned system can solve the problem in .4 hours (24 minutes) At > most one order of magnitude. I would argue that it couldn't be done > in .04 hours (2.4 minutes = 144 seconds) and I think everyone would > agree that it can't be done in .004 hours (14.4 seconds.) Wait a minute. It may have taken several hours (more like six) to "program" the Eniac, it still takes more time to actually run those solutions through the machine. The later portions of this paragraph are including solution time. This is mixing apples and oranges. Besides, someone as fluent in programming a modern machine as the person who could wire Eniac without really spending time planning it would be able to write the program in about 3 minutes! Wiring Eniac was pretty boring, figuring out what to wire was the real job, and the estimates of time for that are not available from this quoted source. I suspect that if one included all the necessary time (thinking about the problem formally, planning the wiring diagram, doing the wiring, and running the problem to solution [assuming no bugs]) then the difference might be 3 orders of magnitude. In talking about a "simple" set of simultaneous equations, some packages today do allow you to just plug in coefficients and go in less than 1 minute. In short, there isn't enough info here to really compare the "programming time" costs. -- Gregory G. Woodbury @ The Wolves Den UNIX, Durham NC UUCP: ...dukcds!wolves!ggw ...mcnc!wolves!ggw [use the maps!] Domain: ggw@cds.duke.edu ggw%wolves@mcnc.mcnc.org [The line eater is a boojum snark! ]