Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen
From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 486: Fantastic or Flop?
Message-ID: <1126@sixhub.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jun 90 03:49:23 GMT
References: <1990Jun7.150857.8104@midway.uchicago.edu>
Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Distribution: usa
Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY
Lines: 33

In article <1990Jun7.150857.8104@midway.uchicago.edu> phd_jacquier@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes:
| (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) writes:
| >  I have been running benchmarks on 386s and 486s for about a month now,
| >and the 486 is about 2.6 times as fast as the 386 at the same clock
| >speed *for 32 bit software*. 
|             ******
| 
| Did you have an ISA or an EISA bus ? (Does it matter anyway? I guess it may 
| with 32 bit software)

  The answer is that all systems had 32 bit motherboard memory. Bus was
not an issue in this case, and for some tests the entire program was
resident in cache (where present).

| What 32bit software is available now for DOS ?

  You're asking the wrong person! However, there are C compilers which
run with DOS extenders (PharLap?) and use not only 32 bit instructions
but protected mode. FRACTINT uses 32 bit instructions in DOS real mode,
and it is faster than on a 286 at the same clock. It's even faster on
an SX than a 286, and that's comparing 16 bit busses (but 32 bit
instructions).

| What 32 bit software is available now for UNIX ?

  Xenix/386, SCO UNIX, SCO Open DeskTop, INteractive Systems UNIX, ESIX,
Intel UNIX. I believe within 60 days V.4 will be shipping. Commercial
software for these systems uses the 386 (32 bit) instruction set.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me