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From: jcburt@ipsun.larc.nasa.gov (John Burton)
Newsgroups: comp.benchmarks
Subject: Re: More issues of benchmarking
Message-ID: <1990Dec7.184506.7507@abcfd20.larc.nasa.gov>
Date: 7 Dec 90 18:45:06 GMT
References: <4344@awdprime.UUCP> <1990Dec5.000522.11635@jrd.dec.com> <1990Dec5.210245.10262@agate.berkeley.edu>
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In article <1990Dec5.210245.10262@agate.berkeley.edu> elm@sprite.Berkeley.EDU (ethan miller) writes:
>Two more numbers, for Cray machines running Unicos:
>Cray Y-MP (6ns clock):  5.0
>Cray 2 (4.1ns clock):   8.8
>
>The entire listing is now:
>IBM RS/6000 720               3.5    tif
>IBM RS/6000 320               4.4    de5
>Cray Y-MP (Unicos, 6ns clk)   5.0    elm
>DECstation 5000/200           6.0    de5
>DECstation 5000/200 (U 4.0)   6.0    neumann
>DECsystem 5810                6.2    de5
>Sparcstation 2GX              7.0    dwf
>DECsystem 5400 (U 4.0)        7.6    doi
>Sun 4/470 (sos 4.1)           8.3    casper
>Cray XMP (Unicos)             8.6    de5
>Cray 2 (Unicos, 4.1ns clk)    8.8    elm

[...]

>
>ethan
>--
>=================================
>ethan miller--cs grad student   elm@sprite.berkeley.edu
>#include <std/disclaimer.h>     {...}!ucbvax!sprite!elm
>Witty signature line condemned due to major quake damage.

Looks like the IBM RS/6000 is an extremely hot performer, according
to these numbers (beats a Cray Y-MP ?). 

I read a review of the RS/6000 in the Dec. issue of Personal Workstation,
which basically said the IBM RS/6000 is a screamer for single task/ single
user number crunching applications (which agrees well with the above numbers).
For multitask / multiuser applications it appears to  be brain damaged, 
giving results similar to those obtained from 386 based systems. 

Guess this would indicate the common sense approach to benchmarking...
test your system with a process load/mix that is representative of 
your environment, otherwise you might be unpleasantly surprised.

just my 2 cents worth...

John
(jcburt@cs.wm.edu)