Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!caip!ut-sally!seismo!cmcl2!philabs!polaris!herbie
From: herbie@polaris.UUCP (Herb Chong)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: FYI: VM systems on the net
Message-ID: <649@polaris.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Jul-86 19:36:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: polaris.649
Posted: Wed Jul 16 19:36:20 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Jul-86 05:27:43 EDT
References: <6340MW9@PSUVM> <-121460420@sysvis>
Reply-To: herbie@polaris.UUCP (Herb Chong)
Organization: IBM TJ Watson RC
Lines: 48

In article <-121460420@sysvis> george@sysvis.UUCP writes:
>I heard that VM stands for Visceral Maggots.  True?  It's uncommon for an
>"OS" to SUCK down about 40% of the total available machine cycles for overhead,
>as does VM.  That's why it wasn't tagged with an `OS' label, I'm sure.   Who
>needs VM?   Who cares?   IBM didn't have an official `C' compiler as of some
>time ago so what are you going to do with sources that won't compile, and if
>they did, the I/O is handled totally differently?   Batch is bitch, Butch.
>Try net.jokes instead of net.sources for your jollies.  If VM is so great, why
>aren't all the "good" microcomputers  [IBM/AT (-:]  using it?

the mindless drivel i won't bother replying to.  the facts are wrong.
a VM system can use 40% of the CPU.  it can also use 2% or 90%.  a unix
system can do the same thing.  unless you are specific about the work
load, performance figures like 40% system state are meaningless.  as it
happens, some of the 4.2 VAX systems i used to work on before i joined
IBM regularly spent 60% of the time in system state.  it can happen and
will happen and be perfectly normal given the work the system is
running.

whether IBM has a C compiler or not is irrelevant.  as pointed out in
another article, there are C compilers for VM.  some of them are as
stringent in compiling the language as lint is so there is no need for
lint.

batch is an option on VM systems.  unless you want it, you don't get it.

would you find Multics on a micro?  whether a system runs on a micro
and a super computer is not very meaningful as the two sets of
customers are totally different and have different problems to solve.
VM addresses a specific problem and is one of the VERY few systems that
does so.  it is not designed for micros and there is little advantage
to having it run in a micro.  having the same user interface is a
different question from having the same system.  for instance, the
XT/370 and the AT/370 happen to run almost all CMS code and gives the
appearance of running in a CMS virtual machine but it really isn't even
though it is using the 370 instruction set.

Herb Chong, IBM Research...

I'm still user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble....

VNET,BITNET,NETNORTH,EARN: HERBIE AT YKTVMH
UUCP:  {allegra|cbosgd|cmcl2|decvax|ihnp4|seismo}!philabs!polaris!herbie
CSNET: herbie%ibm.com@csnet-relay
ARPA:  herbie@ibm.com, herbie%yktvmh.bitnet@wiscvm.wisc.edu
========================================================================
DISCLAIMER:  what you just read was produced by pouring lukewarm
tea for 42 seconds onto 9 people chained to 6 Ouiji boards.