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From: kludge@gitpyr.UUCP (Scott Dorsey)
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: Re: Response to <1363@unc.unc.UUCP> <1712@gitpyr.UUCP>
Message-ID: <1766@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 11-May-86 18:00:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.1766
Posted: Sun May 11 18:00:16 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 13-May-86 02:15:09 EDT
References: <1363@unc> <459@mips>
Reply-To: kludge@gitpyr.UUCP (Scott Dorsey)
Organization: Georgia College Of Universal Knowledge
Lines: 29

In article <459@mips> mash@mips writes:
>1) Measure the performance of a benchmark on machine A, giving time A.
>2) Call that performance, arbitrarily, 1 MIPS.
>3) Measure the same benchmark's performance on machine B, giving time B.
>4) The MIPS rating, on this scale of B, is (time A) / (time B),
>i.e., one is really defining a "unit of equivalent work".  A common unit
>is a VAX 11/780, which is usually called a 1Mips machine, although it
>really does about 500,000 VAX instructions / sec.

   This is a comparative rate, which is extremely useful.  However,
it varies depending on the machine that you use for comparison.  The
state of the art comparison machine will change quite rapidly as
technology advances, and this is not good.  My MIPS will not be the
same as his MIPS.
   You can say 'my machine runs at '.3 Vax Dhrystones', or some such
thing, but DON'T CALL IT MIPS!   MIPS means one specific thing, namely
a not-very-useful measure.

-- 
-------
Disclaimer: Everything I say is probably a trademark of someone.  But
            don't worry, I probably don't know what I'm talking about.

Scott Dorsey       " If value corrupts
kaptain_kludge         then absolute value corrupts absolutely"

ICS Programming Lab (Where old terminals go to die), Rich 110,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Box 36681, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
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