Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!aries!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: The Killer Micro From Hell
Message-ID: <1989Dec29.171526.27550@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 29 Dec 89 17:15:26 GMT
References: <42007@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <3090@umn-d-ub.D.UMN.EDU> <3091@umn-d-ub.D.UMN.EDU> <158@csinc.UUCP>
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Organization: Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Chemical Sciences
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>> 
>> 	My original point is being totally ignored here:
>> 
>> 	MIPS is useless if the data can't flow in and out of the CPU
>> 	at the rating of the CPU. The "Killer Micro" is a glorified oscillator
>> 	when it has to wait for I/O to complete. DON'T use a diskless
>> 	"Killer Micro" low cost workstation to try to do REAL work. Let the
>> 	manufacturer nickel and dime you for fast disks and fast memory in
>> 	vast quantitys.  While the MIPS arguement might work on the
>> 	ignorant IBM PeeWee masses, technical people know better than to
>> 	just look at one aspect of a problem and think the problem solved
>> 	based only on that one aspect/criteria. 

Well, I am a member of both the IBM PeeWee masses and a "technical person".
This comment is so obvious that should be obvious  - but I guess that it
isn't to the above poster.  

>>technical people know better than to
>> 	just look at one aspect of a problem and think the problem solved
>> 	based only on that one aspect/criteria. When you solve a problem with
>> 	a computer you have to weigh MIPS vs memory vs disk vs networking vs ??.
>> 	You'll screw yourself over BIG TIME if you totally ignore any of the 4
>> 	in heavy favor of 1 or 2 of the factors.
>> 

This is quite true - BUT - and a big but - when you DO look at the big
picture, you will find that some people need only MIPS, others
(the IBM mainframe accounting crowd?) mainly IO bandwidth, others
need abnormally large memory. Once you get to the final decision of
benchmarking systems to buy, you may well want to weigh one aspect
at 90% of the total decision. The problem with the IBM mainframes and
the Cray supercomputers is that they have very large very expensive
IO systems that some people RIGHT NOW simply don't need. That is 
(one reason ) why killer micros are selling so very well. 

>>DON'T use a diskless
>> 	"Killer Micro" low cost workstation to try to do REAL work. 

It is this statement that I find offensive. For some people it is
indeed what is needed for "real work". I once had the fastest computer
in the world run for 16 hours with ZERO "I" requests (literally) and
only a few kilobytes of "O". (This was long ago on the Illiac IV and
it was a miracle that it didn't die in the 16 hours - but it was free.)

Doug McDonald