Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site Glacier.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!akgua!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!rochester!rocksanne!rocksvax!parcvax!hplabs!hpda!fortune!amdcad!decwrl!Glacier!conor
From: conor@Glacier.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: Re: IBM and the future
Message-ID: <5031@Glacier.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 16-Mar-85 23:37:16 EST
Article-I.D.: Glacier.5031
Posted: Sat Mar 16 23:37:16 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Mar-85 23:56:31 EST
References: <792@topaz.ARPA> <836@ames.UUCP> <426@terak.UUCP> <1098@watdcsu.UUCP>
Organization: Stanford University, IC Laboratory
Lines: 22

> all this talk about powerful microcomputers replacing mainframes is
> just talk until i/o devices of the speed and capacity of current
> mainframe peripherals is available at prices that the average consumer
> can afford.
> Herb Chong...

Hear, hear!
I've been using a HP9000 since September, when our local Vax converted
to 4.2BSD, and we programmers lost our debugger (plug for Third Eye Software,
who wrote the HP-UX debugger). The 9000 is a fast
machine. It sits on a desktop and, even using software arithmetic,
does 70-80% of a VAX-780+FPA+8Meg for large simulation programs.
Unfortunately the disk doesn't keep up. With two, three users running
a mix of compile/edit/awk jobs, the CPU utilization factor measured
by the monitor program is 20-30%, and disk utilization is at 100%.
That's with two 2 CPUs running separate processes, so the total available
CPU utilization is 200%. Pretty dissappointing. Where it really hurts
is editing - vi a 2000 line file and you'll wait 30-40s for the disk copy.
Seems like a waste of a nice machine. Maybe someone at Fort Collins
would like to comment?

Conor Rafferty (conor@su-glacier.ARPA, conor@su-sierra.ARPA)