Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!dg!mpogue
From: mpogue@dg.dg.com (Mike Pogue)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Criteria for comparing RISC processors
Message-ID: <174@dg.dg.com>
Date: 17 May 89 18:27:07 GMT
References: <2368@ogccse.ogc.edu> <1464@cfa.cfa.harvard.EDU> <141@dg.dg.com> <156@dg.dg.com> <658@pitstop.West.Sun.COM> <165@dg.dg.com> <105001@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: uunet!dg!mpogue (Mike Pogue)
Organization: Data General, Westboro, MA.
Lines: 34

In article <105001@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> khb@sun.UUCP (Keith Bierman - SPD Languages Marketing -- MTS) writes:
>MIPSco 's customers cannot generally move binaries from Ardent's to SG
>to MIPS to DEC.
>
>This is not necessarily bad; but it does appear to be case currently.
>
  Yes, in my opinion, DEC's decision to change the endian-ness of the MIPSco
processor has minor advantages, and major disadvantages.  Does anyone know
for a fact that the Ardent binaries are not compatible?

>btw: does DG intend to drop the MV series ?  How is DG better off than
>     Sun ? Is the 88K really binary compatible with the
>     Nova and the MV4000, 8000, 10000, etc. ?
>
>
   Ya got me there!  DG does not intend to drop the MV series at all.  But
I notice a big difference running in a Sun environment (Sun/3 and Sun/4s mixed).
When I am operating in the DG world, I say "cc foobar" and I can run the application
from any terminal at any location.  In the Sun 3/4 world, I say "cc foobar" and
I move to another location, and have to say "cc foobar" again (while renaming the
binaries differently in my working directory, of course).

   I do have applications in the DG world, however, that run on the lowest machines
as well as the highest.  We intend to do the same with the 88K (that's one of the
reasons we picked it).  Those companies that actually manage to do this will, I think,
have an advantage.  I see that Sparc is now attempting to follow in the footsteps of
the 88K BCS! 

   Does anybody know what HP/Apollo intends to do in this regard?  :-)  

Mike Pogue
Data General Corp.

My opinions are my own....