Date: Mon, 08 Sep 1997 14:37:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Simon Shapiro <Shimon@i-Connect.Net> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: FreeBSD Chat <chat@freebsd.org>, Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> Subject: Re: lousy disk perf. under cpu load (was IDE vs SCSI) Message-ID: <XFMail.970908143709.Shimon@i-Connect.Net> In-Reply-To: <19970908151823.35891@lemis.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi Greg Lehey; On 08-Sep-97 you wrote: > Sure. In fact, I'm astounded how much disk drives have improved in > the last 15 years. In 1982, Tandem introduced a 540 MB CDC SMD disk > drive, the disk drive for gluttons. It was a heap of shit. It > weighed a ton, was a real pig to program (it went offline for over 30 > seconds to perform its power on self test, and the system had to > decide whether it was meditating or dead), and it wasn't overly > reliable. We pardoned it because of its high capacity. It still had > the same transfer rates and positioning times that I mentioned above, > probably because of its 14" construction (the last of its kind. After > that, we went to little 8" Fujitsus). Try and find a new production > disk drive *anywhere* with only 540 MB, 30 ms positioning, 800 kB/sec > transfer rate nowadays. By comparison, even the shittiest IDE drives > are a dream. In terms of recording density, drives improved dramatically. In terms of performance, WHEN COMPARED TO CPU IMPROVEMENTS, they are falling behind at about 50% per year. This was my orignal point. The details, although amusing are secondary here (they make for a great chat along the line of ``I am older but less senile than you are...'' :-). Waiting for 1GB RAM is also wrong. It solves none of the static, inert storage needs. --- Sincerely Yours, (Sent on 08-Sep-97, 14:22:04 by XF-Mail) Simon Shapiro Atlas Telecom Senior Architect 14355 SW Allen Blvd., Suite 130 Beaverton OR 97005 Shimon@i-Connect.Net Voice: 503.643.5559, Emergency: 503.799.2313
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?XFMail.970908143709.Shimon>