Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!vsi1!wyse!mips!mash
From: mash@mips.COM (John Mashey)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: N-10 query
Message-ID: <13820@winchester.mips.COM>
Date: 24 Feb 89 06:22:32 GMT
References: <25321@cornell.UUCP> <14860@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: mash@mips.COM (John Mashey)
Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 51

In article <14860@cup.portal.com> mslater@cup.portal.com (Michael Z Slater) writes:
>There have been several requests for N10 info, and since no one from
>Intel seems to be ready and willing to reply, I'll give it a shot.
...
>At ISSCC, Intel quoted figures of 105,000 Dhrystones and 21 double precision
>Linpack MFLOPS at 50 MHz.  Two caveats here -- quoting 50 MHz numbers at
>ISSCC doesn't mean that commercial parts will run at 50 MHz anytime soon,
>and the MFLOPS number likely is for hand-optimized code, not compiler
>generated.  Graphics performance was stated as 60K Gouraud shaded triangles
>per second.

>It seems likely that this chip will displace MIPS for the title of
>world's fastest microprocessor, at least for a while.  I'm told samples
>are already out, and production shouldn't be too far behind.
....
>If this chip had been announced a year ago, it might have been a major
>competitor of SPARC, MIPS, and the 88K for the gneral UNIX workstation
>market.  I think it is now too late, however, for it to compete for the
>mainstream Unix boxes.  Software developers don't want yet another
>architecture to port to.  But for graphics workstations, it may be a 
>big hit.  It will also be popular for graphics accelerators, either
>as add-in boards or as a coprocessor in new system designs.

The N-10 certainly appears to be an interesting chip, and I look
forward to hearing more, especially with regard to how Intel is
going to position it (incl. versus 486 and 80960).  Michael has
certainly covered a number of the relevant issues, and it will be
especially interesting to hear of the state of the compilers and
UNIX for it.  In terms of title of "world's fastest microprocessor",
I'm sure we lost that a while back to {for example} some of the GaAs
or VHSIC ones done for DARPA...  Fortunately, I'd probably more about
the title of: world's fastest microprocessor, given that:
	a) You can buy a production workstation or other system
	that runs UNIX.
	b) You can call up <X>, and buy important applications <Y> that
	are relevant to the kind of systems you build with that chip.
	For example, call up <MetaSoftware> and buy <Hspice>.
	(I pick that example as it's floating-point intensive (relevant to N10)
	although the particular example isn't crucial.)
	c) Compare the run-times with other such systems available under
	the same circumstances....

That's at least a way to get apples-to-apples comparisons (assuming that
a product wants to play in that domain), and avoid the apples-to-oranges
comparisons that drive people bananas.  I'd agree wwith Michael's comment
about expecting to see the N-10 in addin boards and accelerators.
-- 
-john mashey	DISCLAIMER: <generic disclaimer, I speak for me only, etc>
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