mash@mips.UUCP (04/03/87)
``When I use a word,'' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ``it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less.'' In article <326@elxsi.UUCP> sherm@elxsi.UUCP (Michael Sherman) writes: >In article <1805@pyramid.UUCP> csg@pyramid.UUCP (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes: >>In article <501@sw1e.UUCP> uusgth@sw1e.UUCP (uusgth) writes: >>>The NP1 is the first of a new architecture from Gould, called the NPL series, >>>that brings ultra-high performance to minicomputers at price performance >>>factors well below the current industry. >>> >>>The NP1 is an ECL, gate-array processor sitting on a very fast bus (154 mega- >>>bytes per second).With 2 cpu's on the same bus, coupled with a math accelera- >>tor unit, it does 12 MIPS sustained at a base price of about $400,000.... .... > The ELXSI is a multiprocessor with an architecture similar to the > description of the Gould NP1 given in the original posting. ...... > The 6410 measures about 7 Whetstone MIPS, while the 6420 does about > 12, which sounds the same as the Gould CPU described above. > I don't know how Gould is measuring their MIPS, however. If you > measure MIPS by running nroff and calling a VAX/780 1 MIP, then > an ELXSI 6410 is about a 4 (like a VAX 8600) and a 6420 is about a > 6 (like a VAX 8650 or 8700). Floating point, especially 64-bit > floating point, is much faster. What are Whetstone MIPS? .... a) Are they DP MEgaWhetstones? (or SP?) b) Are they X times a VAX 11/780, if so, b1) VAX/VMS b2) 4.3BSD? It makes a difference: a MIPS M/800 looks like: a: 6.9 b1: 8.3 b2: 16.8 Does anybody know if the new Gould systems have published numbers for things like Whetstones, Linpacks, Dhrystones, etc. [Numbers for the new ELXSI's would be nice too]. This sequence got started by people quoting press releases with a lot of MIPS numbers thrown around but not defined. sigh. At least sherm included one MIPS definition, thank goodness. -- -john mashey DISCLAIMER: <generic disclaimer, I speak for me only, etc> UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!mips!mash, DDD: 408-720-1700, x253 USPS: MIPS Computer Systems, 930 E. Arques, Sunnyvale, CA 94086