Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!dino!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: The Killer Micro From Hell [Rea
Message-ID: <76700104@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 2 Jan 90 17:28:49 GMT
References: <791@stat.fsu.edu>
Lines: 22
Nf-ID: #R:stat.fsu.edu:791:p.cs.uiuc.edu:76700104:000:767
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Jan  1 15:47:00 1990


I think that performance/price is a stupid metric for supercomputers.

Your lifetime is a very fixed resource.  Why do we all drive cars?  A
cheap car costs $8000 and goes 65 mph.  But a decent bicycle costs
$400 and goes 12 mph (with minimal effort).  Therefore, the relative
price/kilobuck ratios are:

Car:	65/8 = 8.125 MPHs/Kbuck
Bike:	12/.4 = 30 MPHs/Kbuck

Obviously, bicycles enjoy a 3.5* better performance/price ratio, and we
haven't even considered the health benefits.  So why do most people
drive cars?

I see two reasons.  First, cars have a higher I/O rate (you can put a
whole load of groceries in a car, and 3 children too).

But that is not the main reason.  The main reason is that the old
adage "time is money" is false.  

		--->  Time is money^2