Dear Jacob, Regarding your second question, I stumbled across a relevant article on Wikipedia recently: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth
Cheers, David. On 9 Feb 2011 13:53, "Jacob Keller" <[email protected]> wrote: > I love hearing these types of stories, which have a few effects on me: > > -Admiration of those who worked with so little to produce so much > -Thankfulness for the resources we have now > -Excitement for the forthcoming technogies > -Despair about using current technologies, knowing they will be > supplanted in a few years > > Regarding the last point, does anybody have a good response to the > Moore's law conundrum that some programs which will take, say, ten > years to run now will take only ~1 year to run 8 years from now, > making it futile to run the program now? Maybe it is never worth it to > run such processes, assuming Moore's law will continue? > > Another question: Dale Tronrud mentioned the disconnect between clock > speed and actual processor performance. Is there a simple way to > understand this disconnect? I have wondered for a long time about this > now, especially since it is often raised as a rationalization for > using Mac's even though the dollar:processorHz is much higher in Mac's > than PC's. > > Jacob Keller > > On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 4:16 AM, Robert Esnouf <[email protected]> wrote: >> At times DEC we innovative in ways that no hardware company >> today even comes close. But I guess innovation and commercial >> success do not go hand in hand. OK, this is abridged from >> Wikipedia, but much of it is true... >> >> Digital supported/developed the ANSI standards, especially the >> ASCII and multinational character sets. >> >> The first versions of the C language and the Unix operating >> system ran on Digital's PDP series of computers >> >> Digital produced the first pure 64-bit microprocessor, >> AlphAXP. >> >> Digital collaborated on the Ethernet standard and made the >> commercially success it is today. >> >> Digital, though their Hierarchical Storage Controllers, >> delivered the first hardware RAID. >> >> Digital was the primary sponsor for the X Window System >> project (project Athena). >> >> Digital was one of the first businesses connected to the >> Internet with dec.com, registered in 1985, being one of the >> very first .com domains. Digital was also the first computer >> vendor to open a public website, on October 1, 1993. >> AltaVista, created by Digital, was one of the first >> comprehensive Internet search engines. (Although Lycos was >> earlier, it was much more limited.) >> >> DEC invented Digital Linear Tape (DLT) which was so much more >> reliable than helical scan technologies such as DAT. >> >> Digital were even developing the forerunner of the iPod (a >> hard-disk based MP3 player) back in 1998 before the merger >> with Compaq. >> >> >> Regards, >> Robert >> >> -- >> >> Dr. Robert Esnouf, >> University Research Lecturer >> and Head of Research Computing, >> Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, >> Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK >> >> Emails: [email protected] Tel: (+44) - 1865 - 287783 >> and [email protected] Fax: (+44) - 1865 - 287547 >> > > > > -- > ******************************************* > Jacob Pearson Keller > Northwestern University > Medical Scientist Training Program > cel: 773.608.9185 > email: [email protected] > *******************************************
