Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool2.mu.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!msi.umn.edu!noc.MR.NET!gacvx2.gac.edu!dan From: dan@gacvx2.gac.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Mathematica Benchmarks (NeXT vs. DEC and Mac) Message-ID: <1991Jan7.221906.28@gacvx2.gac.edu> Date: 8 Jan 91 04:19:06 GMT References: <1991Jan3.214940.1@linus.claremont.edu> Lines: 32 In article , lee@wang.com (Lee Story) writes: ... much deleted ... > As a benchmark, Mathematica is wholly bogus. It has been reorganized > (somewhat ineptly, it appears) to run with the Mac's segmented code > resource scheme, with PharLap on dos, etc. The compilers used are > unstated in its documentation, and the source is not available for > recompilation. Thus it cannot be used to benchmark raw processor/memory > speed or processor/memory/compiler speed. What's left? I challenge the assumption that it is a bogus benchmark. Many of us still buy computers for the applications they run, and not because of the raw processor speed a measured by standard benchmarks. We want to buy the hardware that will run the software we want to use as fast as we can afford. Mathematica is of great interest to the educational community. One of the professors here used grant money to purchase a SGI personal Iris ($16,000) so he could do his research, using Mathematica. The SGI did not do as well as the NeXTstation ($4,000) in the Mathematica benchmark. You supply the evidence for much of my arguement in your post. Mathematica on the Mac is not able to match the performance of Mathematica on other platforms, because of arcitecture limitations, and possibly less than optimal porting. If the MacOS and the Mac's hardware it performs less than it would under ideal benchmarks. I would not rank the Mathematica benchmarks in the same catagory as the standard benchmarks (ideal/theoretical) they have their value, however I would not rank it as a bogus benchmark, I prefer to rank it as a practical or real life benchmark. We have to bechmark more than just the machine, we also need to take into account the software we use on that hardware. -- Dan Boehlke Internet: dan@gac.edu Campus Network Manager BITNET: dan@gacvax1.bitnet Gustavus Adolphus College St. Peter, MN 56082 USA Phone: (507)933-7596