Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!abvax!iccgcc!herrickd
From: herrickd@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: price/performance
Message-ID: <2069.2747d90d@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>
Date: 19 Nov 90 18:07:25 GMT
References: <5517@newton.praxis.co.uk>
Lines: 23

In article <5517@newton.praxis.co.uk>, mct@praxis.co.uk (Martyn Thomas) writes:
> Every five years, your dollar buys about 10-times as many MIPS, if you look
> at factory-gate microprocessor prices.
> 
> Has anyone got historic ratios for the improvement in price/performance for
> IBM or any other large processor manufacturer?
> 
> I need them for a lecture on Nov 21st.
> 
> Thanks
> -- 
> Martyn Thomas, Praxis plc, 20 Manvers Street, Bath BA1 1PX UK.
> Tel:	+44-225-444700.   Email:   mct@praxis.co.uk

Back before 1976 Herb Grosch was a columnist in Computerworld, a weekly
news rag aimed at MIS people.  He would occasionally write about
Grosch's Law, which was a formula for such things.  The formula
had quite good predictive value for a long time.  Methinks I remember
reading someone's comments on the current applicability of Grosch's
Law in an IEEE or ACM publication within the last two or three years.

dan herrick
herrickd@astro.pc.ab.com