Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!hellgate.utah.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!aglew From: aglew@crhc.uiuc.edu (Andy Glew) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Architecture questions Message-ID: Date: 8 Sep 90 23:51:26 GMT References: <10057@goofy.Apple.COM> <2516@l.cc.purdue.edu> <6838.26e7f109@vax1.tcd.ie> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Lines: 25 In-Reply-To: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie's message of 7 Sep 90 19:12:09 GMT >Consider the following kinds of operations: >1. Scientific and engineering work (floating-point) >2. Text processing (byte addressing) >3. Transaction processing (floating-point, bytes and fixed-length integers) >4. Graphics (best done in chunks as large as the CPU can handle, using barrel > shifters and masking) >5. Compiling (integers and pointers) > - in no particular order. These make up something over 99% of all computation. You'd probably do well to add an extra entry for database queries and decision support to this list (that is, if that 99% is supposed to be weighted by importance, or by the reasons people buy computers). Yes, that's distinct from, although intimately related to, transaction processing, but it tends to have different characteristics. Transaction processing is stuff like handling lots of ATMs. Database queries and decision support is something like the bank president requesting a summary of all ATM traffic records, looking for all ATMs that do 20% of their business in rush hours in denominations of 20$ or less. DeWitt (UW Madison), Mr. Database: large queries may be only a small portion of database activities. But transactions are fast enough already. Queries are the most important part. -- Andy Glew, a-glew@uiuc.edu [get ph nameserver from uxc.cso.uiuc.edu:net/qi]