Newsgroups: comp.arch
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Historical architectural advances??
Message-ID: <1990Oct11.165618.12989@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1990Oct4.001346.4139@Stardent.COM> <8052@scolex.sco.COM> <2750@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <8139@scolex.sco.COM>
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 90 16:56:18 GMT

In article <8139@scolex.sco.COM> seanf (Sean Fagan) writes:
>>The VAX was a major step forward in price/performance.
>
>The 750 and 780 had horrible performance...

True, although comparing them against today's micros is cheating.  A better
comparison is against the contemporary pdp11s.  The VAXes had an obvious
advantage in address space, which gave them a decisive edge in handling
problems involving large amounts of data.  However, for problems that would
fit in an 11, the comparison doesn't look so good.  The 780 was no better
than neck and neck with an 11/70, and the 750 was definitely slower than
an 11/44... despite the VAXes being much bigger, much more expensive, and
rather newer technology.
-- 
"...the i860 is a wonderful source     | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
of thesis topics."    --Preston Briggs |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry