POLL: Speed Ratio of your first GIMPS box to your fastest :) - Page 2

Xyzzy · 2002-10-30, 02:04

Isn't George like 90 or something?

:(

Daffy · 2002-10-30, 03:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

I'm only 32, but my first was < 1MHz...

I actually had more fun back then too...

I agree 100 %. My first machine was a Casio PB-700 in 1984 with 8 Kb of RAM (I don't know how many KHz that was). I regretted not to have a Sharp PC-1500 that could handle assembler (with peeks and pokes...). Anyway, that was my first machine and I used it to compute 3000 digits of PI. Took 2 weeks and a full set of 4 AA batteries. Heat wasn't a problem back then. And it could boot in ms... ;) Believe it or not, I still use it and it still performs great things for me (in BASIC).

Later, an ATARI 1040 ST, 8 MHz, 1 Mb of RAM, 20 Mb HDD. This was a screaming machine in 1986. Super easy to program. Assembler was so cool. In comparison, Intel x86 sucked...

Later, a 486DX-33, 4 Mb of RAM, 240 Mb HDD upgraded and upgraded to a 486DX2-66, 8 Mb of RAM, 1.2 Gb HDD, CD-ROM, Sound card, etc... (nothing of this multimedia stuff was standard in 1992). Still works with Windows 3.1 but I.E. is broken (Y2K stuff), etc...

Finally, an Athlon 1400, 256 Mb DDR-2100, 120 Gb HDD and all the cool multimedia stuff. One year old and already obsolete... This is my first machine for GIMPS. I stopped GIMPS for 2 months this year to run an other distributed project until it was complete (find some cure, etc...).

The PC does its job pretty well but it's no comparison with a P4.

Oh, by the way, I am 34... Not too old, I hope. I never used punched cards!
;)

Prime95 · 2002-10-30, 03:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Isn't George like 90 or something?

Hey, where'd ya get that idea!

outlnder · 2002-10-30, 03:30

You live in Florida, right?

Isn't it state law that you have to be at least 75 to live there?? :D :D

Prime95 · 2002-10-30, 03:32

and too stupid to vote correctly

Tasuke · 2002-10-30, 07:04

I thought the inability to count and follow a straight line were the clinchers.

binarydigits · 2002-10-30, 08:55

Surely I am not the only one who remembers dropping off programs on punch cards then picking them up the next morning to see if there were any run errors? Teletype terminals were a huge improvement over that; you could find out almost immediately if there was a typo.

The first computer I ever worked on (at a job, not school) had 8K of RAM and a 5MB disk drive, and cost US$32,000 - which was a LOT more money in 1975 than it is now. I have no idea of the speed, but I do remember being amazed later on at the speed of a 5MHz PC.

BTW, I moderated a forum similar to this at "over 40" :) And even at that advanced age, I managed to write the cgi myself. (I will leave my current age as an exercise for the reader. ;) )

ET_ · 2002-10-30, 12:23

Hey wait! I thought you were talking about my first GIMPS computer!

My first home computer was a Commodore Vic-20 assembly programmed to look for Pi decimals and Armstrong numbers, my first programmable calculator was an HP 41 C

At office I had to do with a VERY old IBM System 360, some 43xx and finally a 3081 and 3090. Also had a disventure to treat an Honeywell-Bull DPS8 running on G-Cos3

Actually I'm waiting for StrongArm Palms to restart a long awaited porting of GIMPS ;)

I am 40,63 years old.

Luigi

Paulie · 2002-10-30, 19:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by ET_

Hey wait! I thought you were talking about my first GIMPS computer!

My first home computer was a Commodore Vic-20 assembly programmed to look for Pi decimals and Armstrong numbers, my first programmable calculator was an HP 41 C

At office I had to do with a VERY old IBM System 360, some 43xx and finally a 3081 and 3090. Also had a disventure to treat an Honeywell-Bull DPS8 running on G-Cos3

Actually I'm waiting for StrongArm Palms to restart a long awaited porting of GIMPS ;)

I am 40,63 years old.

Luigi

I have you beat. I'm 30:

First computer was a TI/994a (still use it to play Tunnels of Doom), 16/32k, used single sided/single density 5.25's that I punched for "flippy disks" so I could use both sides. :) Next was a 386sx/16 640k RAM running Win386/2.11 + Compaq 3.33 DOS (best dos ever!) :)

My first computer job was a remote operator of a pair of 3090/600's (one S, one J). We also had a 4381 in the house.

Here's where I got you beat: I worked with a HoneyWell DSP7 that emulated a DSP2!!! It still booted with punch cards (had to retype the worn cards, the pink ones were so cute!)... So the DSP7 had 32k, emulated a machine that had 8K. Everytime it broke, Honeywell would have to fly a retired VP from the golf course to come and fix it.

I had some clients that had some old mini's too... System/36's and System/38's. :)

Did I mentioned I also worked on Vax's, DCL was my favorite scripting language? Oh, and I layed hands upon a PDP-11 that was the gateway machine from the Vax to the Mainframes. LOL

QuintLeo · 2002-10-31, 02:29

My first computer (well, I got to use it regularly and had an account on it in college) was a DEC PDP-11/70.

My first "I owned it" computer was a pieced-together S100-bus Z80-based box. 2.5 Mhz, I think. That quickly got replaced by a C64, which ran a lot of stuff FASTER despite being "only" a hair less than 1 Mhz, due to the 6502 being a LOT more efficient per clock cycle than the Z80 (and since the Z80 was more efficient per clock on most software than the 8080, I leave to you the judgement of how long Intel has been doing "Mhz matters"). 9-)

I'm typing this on my first GIMPS computer - a Athlon XP1800+ (overcloced to 1622 Mhz currently I think), slowed somewhat by it's "ancient" KT7A motherboard and PC133 SDRam.

My fastest GIMPS computer is a (currently single-CPU, soon to reaquire a second CPU) Tyan s2460 Tiger, which runs a XP1800+ at stcok speed with PC2100 DDR and still manages to run almost 20% faster per iteration than this machine. I am going to do some testing once I get the second CPU as to how much the "interferance" slows things down on a dual-Athlon platform - worst case, I'll have a fairly fast LL and a screamingly fast Factoring box all in one MB/Case.... 9-)

For the record - this is my one and only 98SE machine - the Tyan and almost all of my other machines run Slackware LINUX, mostly 8.1 or 8.0 but some haven't been upgraded yet - I think the oldest Slackware version I still have in use would be 3.0 on a K5 box. I don't know if mprime runs faster than Prime95 - but think that might possibly be a factor in the Tyan being as much faster, though I suspect the DDR vs SDR is the primary difference.

PadainFain · 2002-11-13, 21:45

I've just come back to GIMPS after a lengthy break. In fact when I was last taking part my machine was a "486" system with a 100MHz Cyrix processor. Now I've just installed it on both my P4 1.5GHz and my Athlon 2000+. I reckon I'll get through rather a lot more numbers now! Given what people have said about those Cyrix processors I'm guessing that the combined power of thee two engines might be over 1000 times more.

View Poll Results: How much faster is your fastest GIMPS machine than your first?
0, I am not currently running gimps, there is no client for my PDA.	3	0.93%
1, I believe GIMPS is a good use of my time, but am not so in to it as a hobby.	21	6.50%
2-3, I have a small home network, or have my home and work machine on gimps.	23	7.12%
4-6, I have a small network at home/a few machines at work I admin.	22	6.81%
7-15, It is an obcession, true, but one I dreadfully enjoy. This is my mark on history.	14	4.33%
16+, I have the warmest apartment/have access to a large number of business or school-lab computers. My(coworkers/students) enjoy that they are making a difference and history.	20	6.19%
C	2	0.62%
D	6	1.86%
A	7	2.17%
B	3	0.93%
E	3	0.93%
F	3	0.93%
G	6	1.86%
H	1	0.31%
I	1	0.31%
Yes! Subforums are a great idea!	7	2.17%
No! I like thing the way they are!	12	3.72%
Yes!	8	2.48%
No!	10	3.10%
There are other projects?	5	1.55%
10	1	0.31%
20	1	0.31%
25	13	4.02%
50	9	2.79%
100	2	0.62%
All of them (!)	4	1.24%
Yes, I have a lot of junk^H^H^H^Hcool stuff to sell!	9	2.79%
No, it would just create a lot of problems!	16	4.95%
6 months	3	0.93%
1 year	18	5.57%
5 years	33	10.22%
10 years	4	1.24%
never	1	0.31%
~1x	1	0.31%
~4x	6	1.86%
~16x	9	2.79%
~64x	8	2.48%
>256x	8	2.48%
Voters: 323. You may not vote on this poll

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2002-10-30, 02:04	#12
Xyzzy Aug 2002 2·3²·13·37 Posts	Isn't George like 90 or something? :(

2002-10-30, 03:30	#15
outlnder Aug 2002 476₈ Posts	You live in Florida, right? Isn't it state law that you have to be at least 75 to live there?? :D :D

2002-10-30, 03:32	#16
Prime95 P90 years forever! Aug 2002 Yeehaw, FL 17×487 Posts	and too stupid to vote correctly

2002-10-30, 07:04	#17
Tasuke Aug 2002 1001000₂ Posts	I thought the inability to count and follow a straight line were the clinchers.

2002-10-30, 08:55	#18
binarydigits Aug 2002 2²·13 Posts	Surely I am not the only one who remembers dropping off programs on punch cards then picking them up the next morning to see if there were any run errors? Teletype terminals were a huge improvement over that; you could find out almost immediately if there was a typo. The first computer I ever worked on (at a job, not school) had 8K of RAM and a 5MB disk drive, and cost US$32,000 - which was a LOT more money in 1975 than it is now. I have no idea of the speed, but I do remember being amazed later on at the speed of a 5MHz PC. BTW, I moderated a forum similar to this at "over 40" :) And even at that advanced age, I managed to write the cgi myself. (I will leave my current age as an exercise for the reader. ;) )

2002-10-30, 12:23	#19
ET_ Banned "Luigi" Aug 2002 Team Italia 1301₁₆ Posts	Hey wait! I thought you were talking about my first GIMPS computer! My first home computer was a Commodore Vic-20 assembly programmed to look for Pi decimals and Armstrong numbers, my first programmable calculator was an HP 41 C At office I had to do with a VERY old IBM System 360, some 43xx and finally a 3081 and 3090. Also had a disventure to treat an Honeywell-Bull DPS8 running on G-Cos3 Actually I'm waiting for StrongArm Palms to restart a long awaited porting of GIMPS ;) I am 40,63 years old. Luigi

2002-10-31, 02:29	#21
QuintLeo Oct 2002 Lost in the hills of Iowa 1C0₁₆ Posts	My first computer (well, I got to use it regularly and had an account on it in college) was a DEC PDP-11/70. My first "I owned it" computer was a pieced-together S100-bus Z80-based box. 2.5 Mhz, I think. That quickly got replaced by a C64, which ran a lot of stuff FASTER despite being "only" a hair less than 1 Mhz, due to the 6502 being a LOT more efficient per clock cycle than the Z80 (and since the Z80 was more efficient per clock on most software than the 8080, I leave to you the judgement of how long Intel has been doing "Mhz matters"). 9-) I'm typing this on my first GIMPS computer - a Athlon XP1800+ (overcloced to 1622 Mhz currently I think), slowed somewhat by it's "ancient" KT7A motherboard and PC133 SDRam. My fastest GIMPS computer is a (currently single-CPU, soon to reaquire a second CPU) Tyan s2460 Tiger, which runs a XP1800+ at stcok speed with PC2100 DDR and still manages to run almost 20% faster per iteration than this machine. I am going to do some testing once I get the second CPU as to how much the "interferance" slows things down on a dual-Athlon platform - worst case, I'll have a fairly fast LL and a screamingly fast Factoring box all in one MB/Case.... 9-) For the record - this is my one and only 98SE machine - the Tyan and almost all of my other machines run Slackware LINUX, mostly 8.1 or 8.0 but some haven't been upgraded yet - I think the oldest Slackware version I still have in use would be 3.0 on a K5 box. I don't know if mprime runs faster than Prime95 - but think that might possibly be a factor in the Tyan being as much faster, though I suspect the DDR vs SDR is the primary difference.

2002-11-13, 21:45	#22
PadainFain Nov 2002 4₈ Posts	I've just come back to GIMPS after a lengthy break. In fact when I was last taking part my machine was a "486" system with a 100MHz Cyrix processor. Now I've just installed it on both my P4 1.5GHz and my Athlon 2000+. I reckon I'll get through rather a lot more numbers now! Given what people have said about those Cyrix processors I'm guessing that the combined power of thee two engines might be over 1000 times more.