One-upsmanship (was: Secret Mac

From: Ethan Dicks <erd_6502_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed Apr 17 14:12:18 2002

--- "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin_at_xenosoft.com> wrote:
> > > My computer's heavier than yours.
> > new sig: My computer's got more blinking lights than yours.
> My computer's slower than yours.

In the spirit of this "pecker contest" (as a former boss of mine would
call it), let me suggest the "ultimate" metric for bragging rights...

  cubic-foot-BTU/Hr-lb-amps per KByte-MIPS.

If you want to include blinkenlights, throw lumens in there somewhere.

To throw out the first number, since I have the handbook right here,
I assess the PDP-8/e at 98889 cuftBTUlbA/KBMIPS*. I'm sure something
like an iPAQ would have an incredibly small number. If I had to guess,
I'd put the Straight-8 at about 4x the volume of the -8/e, 3x the power
and heat and 1/8th the memory, so roughly 2.85E+07 cuftBUTlbA/KBMIPS.

*Supporting data from pages 8-2, 8-16, et al. of the "small computer
handbook, 1973"...

  o 24" x 10.5" x 19" = 4788 cu in = 2.77 cu ft
  o 1700 BTU/Hr
  o 90 lbs
  o 5.6A (max - so assume full boat of core)

2.77 x 1700 x 90 x 5.6 = 2373336

  o 32KW = 48KB (12 bits/word)
  o 0.5 MIPS (re: http://www.pdp8.net/)

48 x .5 = 24

2373336 / 24 = 98889


Any other estimates? Should we consider BTU/Hr _or_ Amps (since more
power means more heat) or leave both values in the metric?

Disks could be similarly rated, leaving out MIPS. The RA81 would
have a large number, probably larger than most things made since
1984 (the RP03 would score well, too).

What's _your_ "best" machine?

-ethan



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Received on Wed Apr 17 2002 - 14:12:18 BST

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