Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!pacbell.com!pacbell!rtech!ingres!ingres.com!jpk
From: jpk@ingres.com (Jon Krueger)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Architectural design
Message-ID: <1990Oct27.021127.29018@ingres.Ingres.COM>
Date: 27 Oct 90 02:11:27 GMT
References: <2675@l.cc.purdue.edu>
Lines: 40

From article <2675@l.cc.purdue.edu>, by cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin):
> I suspect that even in a totally business-oriented situation, a machine
> which can ONLY run Cobol fast would be an insult to any thinking programmer.

You suspect wrong.  Thinking programmers are not insulted by
processors designed to perform specific operations well.

> In a university environment, with a very heterogeneous collection of jobs,
> it is far worse.  Even in an industrial environment; I am almost certain
> that Bob Silverman and Peter Montgomery use computers for other than
> primality testing and factorization.

Good morning,  Herman.  You shouldn't have imbibed so freely with those
little guys with the nine-pins.  It is now 1990.  The changes in the
last twenty years may come as a bit of a shock to you.  It is now
pretty common for universities to own more than a single computer.  In
fact, it's not unusual for individuals to own or have access to more
than a single computer.

You may want to take some time to acquaint yourself with the effects
this has had on computer use.  Bob and Peter do indeed use computers
for primality testing and factorization and other applications.  They
aren't all the same computers.  If Bob and Peter have a need to run
Cobol fast, it is unlikely that they would want to run their primality
testing and factorization on the same machine.  And it is silly to
criticize either machine for doing its task well.

You might also consider the effects this has had on architectural
design.  It may be hard to comprehend twenty years of changes all at
once.  Perhaps it would help to pick up where you left off, review the
changes that occured in the previous twenty years.  Timesharing,
compilers, programming languages, operating systems, function
libraries, the beginnings of software tools -- you do remember them
being useful in their way?  Enough to affect processor design?  Even at
some cost in performance?  Just how long were you asleep, Herman?

-- Jon
--

Jon Krueger, jpk@ingres.com