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From: alan@oz.nm.paradyne.com (Alan Lovejoy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Next computer (Re: CISC Silent Spring)
Message-ID: <7344@pdn.paradyne.com>
Date: 7 Feb 90 04:04:49 GMT
References: <8859@portia.Stanford.EDU> <1990Feb6.060809.15101@nueces.cactus.org>
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Reply-To: alan@oz.paradyne.com (Alan Lovejoy)
Organization: AT&T Paradyne, Largo, Florida
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In article <1990Feb6.060809.15101@nueces.cactus.org> chari@nueces.cactus.org (Chris Whatley) writes:
>Followups to comp.sys.next
>>I know.  Steve's going to upgrade the NEXT to a 68040.
>>Even then, the Sparc chip set is faster.
>
>What sparc machine do you think is going to beat an '040 at anything
>if Motorola's specs are correct? We have one of the fastest
>sparcstations that Sun makes in the department and it is only a 16 VAX
>mips machine. One of the tests a professor here ran was an application
>for his akcl LISP which takes 1800 seconds on his 6 MIPS '030 HP
>machine and takes 600 seconds on the Sun4. If the '040 @ 25Mhz will do
>20 MIPS then we can expect it to run in a little over 400 seconds.
>Anyway, we can all do math.

Well, I certainly hope that the 68040's SPECmark at 25MHz is about 20.0.  But
that is not yet an established fact.  I have yet to hear an authoritative 
explanation as to what Motorola means by "20 MIPS."  Does that mean it
iterates thru Dhrystone 2.1 more than 35 to 40 thousand times per second?
Does it mean its SPECmark will be 20.0?  Does it mean that it executes 20
million native instructions per second? Or does it mean something else?

Motorola claims that the '040 executes 1.3 cycles per instruction.  I believe
that 20 * 1.3 = 26.  Or alternatively, 25/1.3 = 19.2___.  Also, the article
in EDN magazine that I saw today said "20 native MIPS."  If that is true,
then the 68040 probably runs at around 15-17 integer VUPS at 25MHz, as
measured by SPECmarks, for instance.  Considering that the CMOS-MPU machine
with the highest PUBLISHED SPECmark so far (which is based on the 33Mhz 88k)
has a SPECmark of almost 18 (I forget the precise number), that's still pretty 
impressive.  But this is all guesswork.

Computerworld today had a little note in its rumors section to the effect that
the MacIIxi will be released soon--with a 68040 inside.  While I don't believe
this, if true, then we may not have to wait long to start benchmarking real
68040s in real systems.  But Apple is about as likely to introduce a system
based on the 68040 before next fall (if that soon) as IBM is to adopt the Mac
as its corporate PC standard.  Perhaps I'll be proven wrong.  I'd like that.


____"Congress shall have the power to prohibit speech offensive to Congress"____
Alan Lovejoy; alan@pdn; 813-530-2211; AT&T Paradyne: 8550 Ulmerton, Largo, FL.
Disclaimer: I do not speak for AT&T Paradyne.  They do not speak for me. 
Mottos:  << Many are cold, but few are frozen. >>     << Frigido, ergo sum. >>