sewilco@mecc.UUCP (Scot E. Wilcoxon) (05/31/86)
(There's no net.benchmark. Arch seems best for hardware
comparisons, while micro.pc will include some more IBM shops.)
There seems to be a veil of secrecy around IBM's System/36.
This is IBM's departmental computer offering, and I can't get much
data on it for comparisons. Has anyone seen any benchmarks for it?
My IBM representative refuses to give speeds of processors, memory
cycle times, bus or channel speeds for this machine. Granted, with
interplay between the CPU (MSP) and the supervisor processor (CSP)
getting mingled with various I/O interface processors the overall
throughput is dependent upon the application. But not releasing
any figures certainly makes shopping difficult.
So far I've gotten estimates of about 0.2 MIPS for the MSP, and
published MIPS on the S/36 upgrade path (S/38 or 43xx) which
make that figure believable. If we assume the MSP and CSP
contribute equally to a job, we get a generous 0.4 MIPS.
Let's see what else is around 0.4 MIPS:
IBM PC, IBM PC/XT, Northstar Horizon, PDP-11/34,
Tandy 1000, Tandy TRS-16B, Apple Lisa
(Oh, around 0.2 MIPS? Apple II = 0.15, TRS80-III 0.22)
This is a departmental computer. A CPU in the micro range,
with I/O processors. And I doubt the I/O processor speeds are
very high, as that's probably the main bottleneck when an S/36
is a PC fileserver (InfoWorld May 19, pg 19, "System 36 Called
Unworkable as PC Link").
Anyone with knowledge of the S/36 who can explain the speeds
and/or the architectural implications? (responses to net.arch)
Ref: CACM, Feb 85, pg 147. CW Aug 19-Sept 2 85, H/WRoundup.
Dhrystone 1.0 results (any 1.1 list yet?). DATAPRO M11-491-60x.
--
Scot E. Wilcoxon Minn. Ed. Comp. Corp. quest!mecc!sewilco
45 03 N / 93 08 W (612)481-3507 {ihnp4,philabs}!mecc!sewilco
"Teacher, John is cheating. He's got a TRS-80 hidden behind his PET!"