Date: Tue, 29 Aug 1995 21:49:20 -0700 (PDT) From: "Rodney W. Grimes" <rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com> To: rsnow@txdirect.net (Rob Snow) Cc: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, vince@penzance.econ.yale.edu, hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Upgrade to my machine Message-ID: <199508300449.VAA05887@gndrsh.aac.dev.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.950829232458.1786A-100000@oasis> from "Rob Snow" at Aug 29, 95 11:27:05 pm
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> > On Tue, 29 Aug 1995, Rodney W. Grimes wrote: > > > > > > > -Vince- stands accused of saying: > > > > Hmmm, what about machines in terms like SUN's, HP's will the P90 > > > > compare to since the Alpha is a fast machine. > > > > > > Depends lots on what you're doing with them; in a straight line, the P90 > > > is pretty quick, but what you put around it largely determines how it will > > > perform in an applications context. (Especially memory/cache/disk) > > > > > > >> Anyone who does big models of any sort uses huge amounts of memory, > > > >> as Rod already observed. > > > > > > > > That's true but who would actually need a gig of ram? > > > > THINK for a minute about large applications. An Intel Pentium 90/100 CPU > > chip as 3.3 billon transistors on it. Each cmos transitor takes at least > ^^^^^^^^^^ > > 6 rectangles to represent the minimal transitor data and 3 contacts to hook > > it up, now thats 19.8G assumming I can stuff a rectange into a byte :-). > > > > We haven't even started to talk about interconnecting these 3.3 billon > ^^^^^^^^^^ > > transistors... > > > > Can you say that a gigabyte in this world is actually a very small amount > > of data! > > -- > > Rod Grimes rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com > > Accurate Automation Company Reliable computers for FreeBSD > > Isn't that [M]illion? Get a grip, it takes a million transistors just to implement the 16k of cache: 16384 bytes * 8bits/byte * 6 transistors a bit == 786432, add the decoders and other gunk and your over a million right there.... And from the 1994 i486DX2 data sheet ``Over one million transistors implement this RISC integer core'' talking about just the integer ALU and registers here.... and that was the 486 core ALU, the P54 ALU is an order or two in magnitude more complex due to being super scaler and longer pipe. -- Rod Grimes rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com Accurate Automation Company Reliable computers for FreeBSD
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