"Several things are worth noting here. MIPS is a much
more successful chip arch. than Sparc is. Sparc has
lately been selling vapor. A 600mhz CPU is about as
likely to come out of Sun in the next year as MSFT
is to be bought by Netscape. Not too long, and the
300Mhz R12k will appear, with specInt numbers comparable
to 600mhz Alpha, and specFP numbers better than 600mhz
Alpha."
Justin, I realize you work for SGI but this response is
just fraught with nonsense. MIPS is a sucessful
*embedded* processor. And this has nothing to due with
SGI. It is because of the (largely Japanese) companies
building and marketing MIPS processors in that space. I respectfully suggest that if left to SGI, MIPS probably wouldn't be a successful architecture.
SGI has had an utterly dismal track record with the R10k.
First, it was late. Then, as a result, it had mediocre
integer performance. Embarassingly, the other vendors using
the chip (like SNI) actually got better integer performance
than SGI, suggesting SGI's compiler technology was second
rate. Finally, SGI announced the 275 MHz R10K in Jan 1996
and has yet to ship a part over 200 MHz. Which makes me think the R12K you refer to is that effort. And when you talk
about being competitive with the 600 MHz Alpha, you are, no
doubt, referring to the 21164, which is DEC's equivalent of
the R10k. There is zero chance the R12k @ 300 MHz will be
competitive with the 21264, due in the first half of 1998 and
likely to be at least twice as fast as the 300 MHz R12K.
The facts are that SGI has slipped (like everyone else) behind
DEC in the processor race and are not likely to catch up.
Finally, your comments regarding SPARC are absurd. Sun has
had faster boxes than SGI when measured using any integer or
commercial benchmark since the introduction of the UltraSPARC.
Pat |
