Number: 127

Date: 17-Mar-84  0':22':05

Submitter: masinter.PA

Source: 

Subject: characterize performance profile

Assigned To: 

Attn: Lisp

Status: Open

In/By: 

Problem Type: Documentation

Impact: Moderate

Difficulty: Very Hard

Frequency: 

Priority: Unlikely

System: Documentation

Subsystem: Product Descr/Tech Summary

Machine: 

Disk: 

Lisp Version: 

Source Files: 

Microcode Version: 

Memory Size: 

File Server: 

Server Software Version: 

Disposition: This is more for marketing literature than anything else. It is hard to do this well.

Description: The technical summary should address some of the misconceptions about our machine architecture. I started to write some stuff, but didn''t put it in  a polished form.'
'
VanBuer': "Dandelion and Dolphin have 16-bit ALUs, as a result most arithmetic is pretty slow"'
The 16-bit ALU has little to do with arithmetic performance. Dandelion looks quite competitive, especially on small integer arithmetic. The hardware/microcode floating point is also competitive with most other lisp machines.'
 '
'
vanBuer claimed limited control store. '
The 1108 with extended control store (1108X? dunno what they are going to call it) will have more graphics primitives in microcode (e.g., line drawing.) As far as I can tell after using a 3600 for a while, a Dandelion is comperable to a 3600 for graphics processing (at least, without their color hardware board, since the memory bandwidth is in the same ballpark). '
'
He was concerned about the inability of DLion architecturally to support color. Steve, can a DLion support high performance color processing?'


Workaround: 

Test Case: 

Edit-By: Masinter

Edit-Date: 31-May-84 15':27':07