info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (06/05/85)
From: Kevin Carosso <engvax!KVC@cit-vax> > copyright InformationWEEK Issue 016, May 27, 1985 page 10 > > MicroVAX III to Run Full Instruction Set > > Because some users are complaining that the instruction set on the > MicroVAX II is not a full 32-bit implementation of the VAX family's > 32-bit instruction set, there is apprehension that the recently > announceed machine won't run all the VAX software. One solution: the AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (well, you asked for comments!!!! look out!!!!) This is just the sort of misinformed, poorly, if at all, researched crap that seems to appear in all these unbelievably stupid "trade" papers. As I think everyone on this list knows (I hope), the subset uVAX architecture has absolutely NOTHING to do with not being a full 32-bit architecture. It's merely missing a few instructions that few people care about anyway. Also, it emulates ALL those missing instructions transparently (at least under VMS). This reminds me of another misinformed article that I read last night in EE Times. Seems Harris has announced some new UNIX machine that's "optimized for UNIX". They say the machine runs about the same speed as a VAX 8600 running VMS, but that "since the 8600 is not an optimized UNIX machine, the 8600 runs UNIX 10 times slower...". This is also utter crap. The 8600 runs UNIX just as well as any other VAX runs UNIX, which is just as fast as a VAX does anything else. "Optimized for UNIX" is merely marketing bullshit. These things are so tiresome.... why do I keep reading them? :-) /Kevin Carosso engvax!kvc @ CIT-VAX.ARPA