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From: nather@utastro.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.arch,net.followup,net.micro
Subject: Re: ATT and the 3B
Message-ID: <24@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-May-84 21:00:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.24
Posted: Thu May 24 21:00:50 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 05:44:34 EDT
References: <1944@rlgvax.UUCP>
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 40

[]
Guy's insight is correct -- some checking showed that the "sieve"
benchmark on the 3b2 that took 3.6 seconds *did* have the variables
declared "register" -- without that nicety the same benchmark takes
6.3 seconds, about the same ratio as on the Vax 11/780.  This puts
the 3b2 as 0.4 Vax 11/780's.  

I'm told by the AT&T salespeople that the clock rate on all 3b2's
shipped after 1 July 84 will run at 10 MHz, while the current ones
have a clock rate of 7.2 MHz.  If this is correct it will raise the
3b2 to 0.6 Vaxen (for fixed point operations).

Curiously, both 3b2 units I have seen have TWO clock crystals on the
main motherboard, one labeled 28.8 MHz and the other 20.0 MHz.  Maybe
you can choose whatever clock speed you want by deciding how you divide
down the clock.  (28.8/4 = 7.2 MHz, 20.0/2 = 10 MHz) I'd like to try
one at a full 20 MHz and see if it would run!

The demo unit shown at the University of Texas yesterday had a C compiler
but lacked as, ld and the C libraries, so we couldn't benchmark it.
The minimal 3b2 (512K memory, 10 MB disk, 720K floppy, no terminal) sells
for $8500, with "core" Unix system 5 bundled in.  "Core" Unix, as now 
defined, includes the compiler but not the assembler, loader, or libraries.
The salespeople were sufficiently embarrassed by this (as well as by the cost
and performance of the teletype terminal shown with it) that these things
are likely to change quickly.

Another oddity: they have "vi" running, but we were unable to locate any
termcap or equivalent -- on startup, the software asked which (of 2!)
terminals were connected, and "vi" displayed glitches indicating it got
the details wrong.  "vi" without "termcap" is like "cc" without "as".
They have a lot to learn.

But the hardware is a real ... uh ...gem.

-- 

                                       Ed Nather
                                       ihnp4!{ut-sally,kpno}!utastro!nather
                                       Astronomy Dept., U. of Texas, Austin