Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!winchester!mash
From: mash@mips.COM (John Mashey)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: DEC Workstations
Message-ID: <41799@mips.mips.COM>
Date: 28 Sep 90 18:55:09 GMT
References: <8584@helios.TAMU.EDU> <1990Sep28.145310.23881@zoo.toronto.edu>
Sender: news@mips.COM
Reply-To: mash@mips.COM (John Mashey)
Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Inc.
Lines: 26

In article <1990Sep28.145310.23881@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <8584@helios.TAMU.EDU> dinesh@clear3.utdallas.edu (Dinesh Bhatia) writes:
>>I am trying to find out actual difference(s) between DEC 2100 station and
>>DEC 3300 station. Both machines use same CPU, have same description in DEC
>>catalog etc. Only difference that I can see is clock speed is different...

>As John Mashey is fond of pointing out, the CPU is the easiest part of
>the design of a modern computer.  You just drop in the chip.  It's not
>rare to find two machines which use the same CPU chip but have vastly
>different performance, typically because the bigger one has a faster
>memory system, more i/o bandwidth, and better expandability.

Although, in the case of DS 2100 vs 3100 (3300 isn't known to me),
it IS a clock-rate difference.

If you really want to see how different machines can get that use the
same CPU at the same clock rate, read Byte, Or Personal Workstation,
or UNIX Review, and see the performance differences on Intel X86-based
products, which have even more wildly-varying combinations of
different kinds of caches & memory systems, as well as having
Weitek FP coprocessors, or not, and very different compilers.
-- 
-john mashey	DISCLAIMER: <generic disclaimer, I speak for me only, etc>
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