discrete transistors

From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
Date: Mon Oct 19 13:45:55 1998

> In fact, it seems there are mainframes faster than even a 486-33.
> So, I guess Intel outran the mainframe systems only recently.

As far as discrete transistor machines (2nd generation), I would think
that a 486 would be faster in terms of both CPU and I/O horsepower.
Remember that mainframes do not always have super fast CPUs - they do not
need them. Their forte is I/O, where even old ones fair pretty well
compared to modern stuff. One example seen quite a bit on USENET is "my
Pentium is just as fast as a Cray-1. Gee, how things have progressed.".
Sure, a Dell Pentium machine might be plenty fast by the book, but simply
put, it could not even come close to sustaining that speed (140 Mflops for
the Cray-1). A superfast CPU will always loose to slow I/O.

Its all in the architecture...

William Donzelli
william_at_ans.net
Received on Mon Oct 19 1998 - 13:45:55 BST

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