106 mip PC

[Colonel Panic]

In article <12487 at netcom.UUCP> jbreeden at netcom.uucp (John Breeden) writes:
>Does anyone know any details about AT&T's Starserver E? The lit I have 
>says it's a true symmetrical, multiprocessor 33mhz 486 (4 processors).
>They claim a MIP rating of 106MIPS (yea!, I know. That's faster than
>a 3090!), and they are shipping it!
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
to customers?  really?  

I had been told that the multiprocessor 486s required SVR4.1 (and,
the literature I have says this), and we can't even get SVR4.0 yet 
for our 6386s through conventional channels...

Keep in mind that MIPS comparisons to mainframes are meaningless for
at least two reasons.  One, the 370 instruction set is MUCH larger 
than a 486's, so it can do more with each instruction (e.g. conversion
from packed decimal to binary is ONE assembler instruction!)
Two, they use distributed I/O, so the CPU doesn't have to worry
about losing cycles to disk or terminal I/O.  

Mainframe vs. mini/micro religious war flames to /dev/null...

--
Alan Denney  @  Informix Software, Inc.          "We're homeward bound
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 Disclaimer:  These opinions are mine alone.      We don't give a damn, 
 If I am caught or killed, the secretary          when we drink our rum
 will disavow any knowledge of my actions.        with the girls of old Maui."