Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ssdc!jbasara
From: jbasara@ssdc (jim basara)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Novice question:  measuring speed
Message-ID: <645@ssdc?>
Date: 12 Mar 91 12:24:36 GMT
Organization: Sterling Software  Vienna,VA.
Lines: 13

Here's a novice question for you architecture folks.  Could someone please
provide me with a descriptive explaination of why MIP ratings are not a 
good way of comparing processing speed for RISC machines as opposed to MFLOPS?
I would also like to know why companies are using MIP ratings for those machine
s if they are not accurate.  Is it possible that the MIP ratings can be 
manipulated so that a processor with a higher MIP rating may actually be
considerably slower than one with a lower MIP rating???  What kinds of things
do I need to be aware of when comparing processing speeds?

thanks for your help

jim basara
uunet!ssdc!jbasara