home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: comp.arch
- Path: sparky!uunet!psgrain!onion!wiskit!firefly!theus!john
- From: john@theus.rain.com (John Theus)
- Subject: Re: Goals, Cost, and Flexibility (was Re: "Training" of programmers)
- Message-ID: <1992Sep13.080843.7741@theus.rain.com>
- Organization: The Theus Group; Sherwood, OR
- References: <1992Sep11.184744.19329@CS.ORST.EDU> <BuFK3y.3H5@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <1992Sep13.033602.3708@CS.ORST.EDU>
- Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 08:08:43 GMT
- Lines: 30
-
- In article <1992Sep13.033602.3708@CS.ORST.EDU> crowl@jade.CS.ORST.EDU (Lawrence Crowl) writes:
- >
- >I've been computing for 17 years, and in all that time I don't think I've
- >done characteristic roots more than a couple of times. My sister has been
- >word processing, spread-sheeting, etc. for six years, and I don't think she's
- >ever done a characteristic root. So, 23 years of computing, 2 roots.
- >
- If you're using an ASCII display, then you may not be doing any roots. If you
- ever do any serious graphics work, then its likely that square root is heavy
- used. I used to be a system architect designing 3D graphics workstations for
- applications like mechanical CAE/CAD. Root performance was always critical in
- those systems, and our RISC processor vendors payed attention when we
- complained about their lack of square root hardware.
-
- Now, maybe you think the graphics market is unimportant to the RISC processor
- vendors, but if that is so, why do several of the current generation parts
- have graphics execution units?
-
- >If you care to argue that computer architects are inadequately supporting an
- >important (and profitable) application area, then do so. Show us how design
- >feature F costs C and gives benefit B. Don't run around telling everyone that
- >designs architectures or programming languages that they're stupid. We're
- >not. We just have a more practical assessment of the value of those feature
- >_to_the_market_as_a_whole_ than you appear to have.
- >
- Gee, I didn't know anyone in the CS department at Oregon State was designing
- commercial processors with the marketing staff necessary to back up such a
- statement.
-
- John Theus TheUs Group +1 503 625 7387 john@theus.rain.com
-