Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!think.com!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!gatech!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: The 68050 - end of the 680x0? (was Re: The Amiga's Future) Message-ID: Date: 17 Jun 91 17:44:58 GMT References: <5068@orbit.cts.com> <16647@darkstar.ucsc.edu> < <1308@cbmger.UUCP> <28@ryptyde.UUCP> > <01dH!cmr@cs.psu.edu> <1991Jun10.072945.8821@neon.Stanford.EDU> <22365@cbmvax.commodore.com> <1991Jun13.003707.19785@neon.Stanford.EDU> Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Organization: Penn State Computer Science Lines: 28 In-Reply-To: bernie@metapro.DIALix.oz.au's message of 17 Jun 91 05: 24:23 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws0.sys.cs.psu.edu In article <1991Jun17.052423.7631@metapro.DIALix.oz.au> bernie@metapro.DIALix.oz.au (Bernd Felsche) writes: Some of this discussion really should be in comp.arch, but all of these people who expound the virtues of RISC often ignore the fact that binaries on RISC are larger. As an example, I've had binaries explode by 100%, transferring from 68030 to 88000. Even with optimizers on, there was still a 50% growth. The RISC therefore needs more native MIPS to achieve the same real throughput. Disk space is becoming very cheap. The size of the binaries is becoming less of a factor(20MB floppies are about to become popular). As for the performance of RISC vs. CISC, take a look at the SPECmarks. The 88K of two years ago is as fast as the 68040. Next year the new 88K will blow away the 68040(as will the R4000 in ACE machines). As a low-end workstation CPU, the 68k should be more cost-effective. I simply can't imagine why Sun didn't continue with the 68k workstations at entry level. Even their last 68k series was knobbled through not making the best use that they could of the `030. Spec's were not significantly better than for the `020 predecessors. Huh? By the time Moto. had the 68040 ready, Sun was ready to simply turn up the clock speed to 40MHz and give better performance to beat the 68040, and they don't have nearly the resources as Moto. Next year the RISC computers take over the world. Get ready. -Mike