"AT&T to resell Pyramid computers" (for real)

[Gary_M_Brammer]

brian at ucsd.Edu (Brian Kantor) writes:

>Good Grief!  If the 3B4000 requires as much or more tuning as that to
>serve as a general purpose computer, I might as well buy an IBM 370 and
>heat the building with it as well.

Although each processor on the 3B4000 has its own tuneable UNIX kernel,
the tuning I was referring to was how resources were to be allocated to
the processes being run (no process scheduler can predict the resources
required by a program, it can only monitor current state/load of the
system).

>Perhaps in an environment where each terminal/user is going to do
>precisely ONE kind of application all the time every day, you could
>claim that a tuned machine is going to support lots of users.

The machine I had previously referred to was running a large mix of
applications including vi, troff, assorted compilers, multiple
networks (TCP/IP, StarLan, RFS, Datakit VCS), and multiple relational
database manager instances (some were remote databases).

>But in a university environment where the mix of tasks changes so
>wildly that no one can predict what will be running next, there is NO
>WAY to tune a machine to optimize performance of one kind of task
>without sacrificing some generality and the performance of all other
>kinds of tasks.

University computers typically run 5 applications: compilers, editors,
USENET, games (rogue,hack,etc), and the one usual dork that insists
on calculating PI to 2000 digits. :-)
Anyway, applications can be categorized fairly easily (for example,
wouldn't it be nice to be able to isolate game players so that they do not
affect the response of "REAL" users).

>What you need is raw frothing power.  Or honest marketing that will
>tell me that my 42Q1000 isn't going to really be powerful enough to
>handle more than 8 to 10 users when 5 of them are using vi, three are
>running troff, and two are compiling modula programs.

Why would you trust an AT&T salescritter any more than another company's
salescritter?  We try to arm our sales people with the information you need
to make an informed purchasing decision.  Marketing "honesty" is at
least partly the responsibility of the consumer to know at least
something about what their requirements are (reasonable requirements, not
the blue-sky that university professors think that they need).

>There's a big difference between a computer that can run the accounting
>department of a company and one that can support computer science
>students developing programs, starting with the way the thing handles
>job mixes and ending with the utilities provided.

Where did I say we were doing accounting on the 3B4000?  I am sorry
that I was not more specific about what was being run on the 3B4000
when I said we "run our production lines" with it.

>Computer manufacturers have to decide which market they're aiming for.
>More importantly, they have to tell their customers which environment
>their computers are optimized for and what its performance in that and
>other environments is going to be.  Until that happens, you're going to
>have large hunks of iron that get returned to the vendor leaving lots
>and lots of ill-will behind them.

No argument with the above.  However, computer systems are evolving
into loosely coupled multi-processor networks and until users evolve 
past the mono-thinking/mono-processor stage, I fear that innovative
machines like the 3B4000 will suffer the consequences of misunderstanding.

>Diogenes, where is your lamp?
>					- Brian

I think there is enough light for the world to make the RIGHT CHOICE.  :-)

Gary