[rescue] pursuing a VAX

[Mike F]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joshua D Boyd" <jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu>
To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: [rescue] pursuing a VAX


> On Mon, Dec 09, 2002 at 02:47:06PM -0600, Eric Dittman wrote:
> > 
> > At least, they shouldn't.  I've heard Wintel-worshippers say
> > things like, "I've got a dual 1GHz Pentium III system, so it's
> > twice as fast as a 1GHZ Pentium III!" which isn't close to the
> > truth.  You can't correct them, either.
> 
> I've also heard, I've got a dual 1 gig P3, which is just as fast as your
> 2gig P4, in which case, they might be right for many applications.  P4s
> suck.  The P4 Xeons don't even seem all that fast.

I work in MCAD (Mechanical Desktop) and my work system -
a lowly Pentium III 866MHz - "feels" at least as fast
as any of my colleagues' Pentium 4 1.7-2.0 GHz systems.
These are all Dell boxes, configured similarly, BTW. My
system was purchased about 2 years ago, and some of the
other systems as recent as last month. So, Moore's law holds
true - clock speed has doubled - but performance has not
improved commensurately. Go figure.