Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!phoenix.mips.com!chrism
From: chrism@phoenix.mips.com (Christopher Marino)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: New SparcStation
Message-ID: <44166@mips.mips.COM>
Date: 18 Dec 90 01:49:56 GMT
References: <4627@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <184127@<1990Dec13> <3300233@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@mips.COM
Reply-To: chrism@phoenix.mips.com (Christopher Marino)
Lines: 22

:
> In article <3300233@m.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
> >
> >I think it's a laugh that Sun quotes "28.5 mips"....
> >
> >Seriously, who cares about this extra .5 mips? ....

Actually, there are quite a few people that do..................


> >
> >Sheesh.  This tells me Sun doesn't know anything about "significant
> >digits".  Am I going to buy a computer by a company that doesn't know
> >about "significant digits"?  How can I be sure the floating point will
> >work 

It seems to me that you are confusing significant figures in the
mathematical sense with figures that you feel are significant.  The SPEC
ratio is the ratio of execution times compared to a VAX and can me
measure quite accurately.  Although I understand your position about the
"significance" of the tenth of a SPECmark, I would much rather have more
info than less.