[rescue] SMP on intel wasteful?

[Dave McGuire]

On June 24, Chris Hedemark wrote:
> OK so now you have tried to directly insult me by engaging in petty
> namecalling.  You've taken a rational argument that I made and tried to
> blow it off by describing the architecture as "repulsive".  And yet
> you've flatly refused to back up any of your accusations with anything
> of substance.

  I'm not here to give you an education in computer architecture, and
I've not flatly refused anything.  I've referred you to various
repositories of information.  Learning it is YOUR responsibility, I
don't want to spoon-feed it to you.

  But I'll throw you a bone, since I'm such a nice guy...first, take a
look at IDE/ATA disks.  Don't make the argument that "but I can put
SCSI on a PeeCee!" because then your "but it's cheaper!" argument gets
blown even further out of the water than it already is.  Then look at
ROM monitor ("BIOS" for you PeeCee guys) support.  Four partitions?
No diag capabilities?  No analog of "environment variable" support to
pass defaults to the booting OS?  Come ON, the VAX had that in 1978.
Then take a look at segmented addressing, then tiny caches.  If you're
still hungry for more, take a look at the number of available
registers.  How well does that mesh with modern compiler technology?
And if you're STILL not convinced, go try to actually *program* an
x86-architecture processor.  When you're ready to commit suicide, drop
me an email and I'll hook you up with a decent price on a real
computer.

> I'll forgive the childish name calling, and overlook the nebulous
> statements.  Just be a grown up, and tell me plainly why I am so wrong
> in saying that there is a solid business case for running *NIX on PC
> hardware in many situations.  And tell me plainly why you think I am so
> wrong for claiming that dollar for dollar a PC with a $2,000 budget can
> trounce RISC workstations many times more expensive than that in real
> world work?

  Processor architecture isn't a business decision.  The notion that
real computers are more expensive than PeeCees simply wrong.  For THAT
"substance" go check some price lists.  And no, "mega hurts" isn't the
way to match up systems for which to compare prices.

  And again, it's not a CISC vs. RISC thing any longer...it hasn't
been for years.

  Have a nice day.  And have an even nicer day tomorrow.

         -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire                  "Needing a calculator indicates that
St. Petersburg, FL              your .emacs file is incomplete." -Joshua Boyd