MacIvory, 3620, and MicroExplorer performance

["Scott B. Layson" <gyro@KESTREL.ARPA>]

   Date: Fri, 2 Sep 88 08:47 PDT
   From: Mr.Spock@SAMSON.CADR.DIALNET.SYMBOLICS.COM (Mr. Spock)

       Date: Fri, 2 Sep 88 08:47 EDT
       From: Hornig@ALDERAAN.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Charles Hornig)

	   Date: Fri, 2 Sep 88 02:20:48 EDT
	   From: chseow@wheaties.ai.mit.edu (Choong Huei Seow)

	   According to Symbolics [this was when I was at AAAI], this MacIvory has
	   a performance of a 3620 machine. Is the slowdown due to the Memory board
	   residing on a Nubus slot ?

       The slowdown is due to the disks available for the Mac II being much
       slower than the disks Symbolics now sells on its 36xx line.  We expect
       this problem to resolve itself as the disk manufacturers realize that
       there is a market for fast disks.

Can you give us a rough idea of the CPU speed relative to, say, a 3670?

   Well, that shoots the whole MacIvory down for me (rats!!).  We have a
   3620 and it's slower than molasses.

Bizarre.  I have a 3620 I use all the time and it seems just about as
fast as a 3670.  Well, the 190Mb ST506 disks are a tad slower than an
Eagle, but not "molasses" by any means, and the CPU feels identical
(said to be 10% faster?  did I get that right?).  Are you sure your
'20 isn't just short on memory?  These days it's hard to get by with
less than 2Mw.  If that's not the problem, maybe something subtle is
wrong with it.

------  Anyhow

I hear from TI that the MicroExplorer CPU speed is roughly half that
of the Explorer II, which I gather puts it in the same ballpark as the
rest of these machines: 36x0, Ivory, etc.  So the only machine being
shipped that has a substantial speed edge on the rest of the pack is
the Explorer II itself, which is still pretty expensive.  But it's a
perfectly good machine if you don't mind debugging the system software
to use it...

-- Scott