herndon@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU (Robert Herndon) (11/09/89)
In article <313@voa3.UUCP>, ck@voa3.UUCP (Chris Kern) writes: > In article <1989Nov5.182954.27464@world.std.com> bzs@world.std.com > >SHEIN'S LAW OF COMPUTER PERFORMANCE: > > The speed of a computer is measured from the time > > at which a question is asked to the time at which > > the question is answered. All other performance > > benchmarks are lies. > Kern's law of _multiuser_ computer performance: > All multiuser computers take the same amount of time > to execute your program. They just support different-sized > user populations. > Chris Kern Voice of America, Washington, D.C. Herndon's addendum to Kern's law of _multiuser_ computer performance: Kern's law applies where the software environment is fixed. If software is a variable, the more convenient the software is, the slower the hardware is at running your application. Corollary: The response time of an open multiuser system is inversely proportional to the convenience of the environment. This follows from the observation that the easier it is to do something useful on a system, the more people will do on it, until the system is so busy that they can better spend their time elsewhere. -- Robert Herndon Dept. of Computer Science, ...!ihnp4!umn-cs!herndon Univ. of Minnesota, herndon@umn-cs.ARPA Minneapolis, MN 55455 herndon.umn-cs@csnet-relay.ARPA