From: eric@tantalus.nrl.navy.mil (Eric Youngdale) Subject: Re: Intel, the Pentium and Linux Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1993 16:07:29 GMT
In article <1993Apr21.131307.18788@microware.com> adam@microware.com (Adam Goldberg) writes:
>jahoward@iastate.edu (Jim) writes:
>Aha! There's the problem--you're comparing against a 486. The
>Pentium FPU is slow _when_compared_to_other_64-bit_processors (Alpha,
>for instance).
It may be slow*er*, but not by much. Someone here has an ALPHA, and
our best guess is that for floating point a 486-33 runs about a factor of 10
slower than an alpha when doing simple floating point (i.e. a fft). Supposedly
the Pentium is at least a factor of 4 faster with floating point than a 486-66,
which would put us within a factor of two or so.
Of course, if you ever look at the price of an Alpha, the term sticker
shock takes on an all new meaning. I suspect that the Pentium will be pretty
cost-effective for computing even when it first comes out.
-Eric
--
"When Grigor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he
found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin."
-F. Kafka