Comparing a desktop or laptop computer to a 918 or 937 is an exercise in
absurdity.  First of all, the MPE system does very little compared to a Mac
or a PC desktop or notebook.  Second, most anyone with an inkling of
performance knowledge would laugh at anyone trying to use a desktop as a
server.  Your 918 has one or more SCSI disk drives whereas the vast majority
of desktops and laptop have a single IDE disk drives.  (Ok, my laptop has 3
disk drives, but I'm a weirdo and they are all IDE, not SCSI.) Third, the OS
of a Mac or a PC is so not geared for multiple users and batch jobs, unless
you use Windows NT/2000/XP.

But let's see if we can simulate an MPE environment on a desktop.  What
would be needed?  Ric mentions 30-45 developers on a 937.  Grant me a PCI
desktop with a network card, one or two disk SCSI disk drives and Windows
2000 Server.

Ok, the first thing is to disconnect the mouse, monitor and keyboard from
the desktop.  The HP 3000 does not have a mouse or a monitor or a keyboard,
no reason to burden the desktop with those things either.  Besides, they are
what consume most of the CPU on these systems.

Next, you only access the desktop via the network. Just like an MPE system.
Ok, now connect a bunch of people over the network and have them type their
programs, line by line into an editor, no GUIs allowed.  When they are
finished, they can compile their programs, again no GUIs allowed, simple
command line stuff.  BTW, you can run some batch jobs in the background, no
GUIs.

See it's running well, no problems.  BTW, the system I described above is
very similar to an A-class box, don't you think?

Get real and stop with the silly, pointless comparisons.  A desktop or
laptop has many uses, an MPE box only has one, to run command line programs
really, really fast.  You will never play music, burn CDs, play video games,
work on digital photographs, scan in documents, watch a DVD movie, do Visual
BASIC or Visual C++ development, browse the web and dictate documents on the
HP 3000.  I can do all that, at the same time on my notebook PC.  (Well most
of it, it's kind of silly to watch a movie, listen to CDs and dictate a
document all at the same time.)


Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 288-7438
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com

-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Ric Merz
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 1:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Contingency Planning

At 05:10 PM 11/21/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>Ahem...  I have always said, in public, that I admire Bill Gates
>and his wonderful leadership.  I just have had, since childhood,

Wonderful leadership?  From what I have heard, he likes to yell and scream.
 Also somewhat of a crook, if you consider business ethics to mean anything.

>Ironically, though, that would be overkill.  My trusty hp3000 918 LX
>runs at 32MHz, has 128MB of memory, and 9 GB of disc.  Even my
>portable Mac PowerBook runs at hundreds of MHz, has 1 GB of memory,
>and has 90 GB of disk (30 built-in and 60 in cigarrette-pack-size
>FireWire disks).  Mind you, this is a very small Mac.  Just imagine
>what can be accomplished with a truly BIG Mac :-)
>
To the hardware challanged, it would appear that the Mac/Wintel machine
should run 1000 / 32 = 31.25 times as fast as the 918.  I don't think so.
You can not compare CPU clock speeds against different hardware
architectures.

Where I used to consult, we had ~30 - 45 developers on a 32 MHz 937 (Cobol
& the usual stuff).  I would be amazed to see 10 users on the Mac/Wintel
machine (plus the usual batch jobs).  But remember, I like to be amazed.


Ric
[log in to unmask]

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