Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!lll-winken!uunet!wucs1!wuphys!wugate!wubios!phil From: phil@wubios.wustl.edu (J. Philip Miller) Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.math.stat,comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Seeking info on BioStat programs for PC or Mac Summary: 8*87 chips are useful Keywords: statistical software; sas Message-ID: <434@wubios.wustl.edu> Date: 22 Mar 89 01:36:36 GMT References: <21641@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <433@wubios.wustl.edu> <1858@se-sd.sandiego.ncr.com> Reply-To: phil@wubios.UUCP (J. Philip Miller) Distribution: usa Organization: Washington University (St. Louis) Lines: 27 Xref: utzoo sci.bio:1945 sci.math.stat:643 comp.sys.ibm.pc:26404 In article <1858@se-sd.sandiego.ncr.com> rns@se-sd.sandiego.NCR.COM (Rick Schubert(AEP)) writes: >In article <433@wubios.wustl.edu> phil@wubios.UUCP (J. Philip Miller) writes: >>I have had reasonable experience with using such large datasets on SAS on a >>PC. You definitely do not want an original XT with its 10Meg disk. You want > >Would an 80*87 be useful and/or advisable for SAS (or other statistical >packages, for that matter)? > yes, in general it is useful, though perhaps not as useful as many folk would suspect. Stat packages typically spend a lot of their time executing control logic, formatting, and other non-Floating point operations. When you are talking about AT class machines where an appropriately 80287 is only a couple of hundred dollars, then almost always it is worth it since it will give you a 20-50% reduction in execution time for many computationally intensive operations. For 80386 processors, particularly for those running at 25+ MHz, then you are talking over $1k for the chip and it may not be such a great investment. Since it is dependent on the particular instruction mix, it is always wise to do some benchmarks on your type of problem. For many analyses, I find the computer is just waiting for my slow brain & fingers so the fastest machine is really not making my job go any faster :-( -phil -- -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* J. Philip Miller - Div of Biostat - Washington Univ Medical School phil@wubios.WUstl.edu - Internet phil@wubios.wustl - bitnet (314) 362-3617 c90562jm@wuvmd - alternate bitnet