Re: How are CPU Speed and Overall CPW Related?

[Pat Barber <mboceanside@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter Dow wrote:
> 
> Hi Pat,
> 
> It is possible to have a single-user AS400, that is, an AS400 on which there
> is only one user, with no spooling going on, no other communications going
> on, is it not? All the things you ask should not be relevant if that was the
> situation.

Because the OS was written from the ground up as multi-user, that's not
really a fair comparison. The items I referred to fire up when the
machine
loads the OS and nothing can or will stop that. They are all elements of
a OS that supports multi-job environment. To compare a single Intel CPU
to a machine that has many "processors" just can't be done and that was 
my point. 

I have been using PC's long before they got to be a commodity based
product.
(Late 70's early 80's)

I am well aware of what they can and "can't" do. If you have ever seen
any NT machine with a single processor running more than one job at a
time, you and I don't have the same concept of multi-processing. Task
swapping is NOT multi-user. It creates the illusion of multi-user but 
it's not the same. W/xx or NT(Nice Try) remain what they are and in
fairness to them, should not be compared to a real OS. 


> Btw, laptops do have spooling, communications for various devices (modem,
> ethernet, etc), can handle multiple users (Georgia Softworks has a telnet
> server for NT I've used), are keeping track of hardware & software interrups
> and doing something about them when they happen, etc. And a laptop could run
> 5 simultaneous occurrences of the same program. I have to ask <G> -- are you
> still running DOS on your laptop?
> 
>
+---
| This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---