pattrsn (07/02/82)
The current issue of Computer Architecture News, a publication of
ACM SIGARCH, contains a paper by Hansen, Linton, Mayo, Murphy, and Patterson
entitled ``A Performance Evaluation of the iAPX 432.''
It compares the 8086, 68000, VAX-11/780 in Pascal to the 432/670
(release 2) and the 432/800 (release 3). This comparison is based on
4 integer programs. For the current generation of compilers, the
432 is more code dense than the VAX-11 and 8086 but less code efficient
than the 68000. A quick summary of the performance: the 432/670,
a 4 MHz release 2 of the microcode with a main memory requiring
12 wait states, is about
1/5 to 1/8 the performance of a 5 MHz 8086 with no wait states.
The yet-to-be-released 432/800,
containing an 8 MHz, version 3, 432 with a 4 wait state memory,
varies from being 4/3 to 1/4 the 5 MHz 8086 - about 3/5 on the average.
The 68000 and the VAX-11/780 are condierably faster.
More details are found in the paper.
Dave Patterson
University of California
Berkeley, California