Computer history: Relative performance of Control Data Cyber systems
Relative performance of Control Data Cyber systems
Control Data Systems Using several relative CDC Cyber performance tables, a raw relative performance indication can be found in the table below. Note that no influence of the number of I/O channels, memory size and so on has been taken into account.
| Performance | Relative CY810=1.0 (computed) |
CY810= 1.0 | CY840= 1.0 | CY720= 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyber 995 | 76 | 69 | ||
| Cyber 990 | 42 | 38 | ||
| Cyber 960-32 | 33 | 30 | ||
| Cyber 176 | 24 | 15 | ||
| Cyber 960-31 | 18 | 17 | ||
| Cyber 855 | 15 | 9.3 | ||
| Cyber 760 | 15 | 9 | ||
| Cyber 860 | 12 | 11 | ||
| Cyber 175 | 11 | 7 | ||
| Cyber 960-11 | 11 | 10 | ||
| Cyber 750 | 11 | 6.7 | ||
| Cyber 850 | 9 | 7 | 5.5 | |
| Cyber 932-32 | 7 | 6.7 | ||
| Cyber 845 | 6.5 | 4 | ||
| Cyber 740 | 6.5 | 4 | ||
| Cyber 840A | 5.6 | 5.1 | 1 | 3.5 |
| Cyber 730-1 | 4.2 | 2.6 | ||
| Cyber 932-31 | 4.1 | 3.7 | ||
| Cyber 835 | 4.0 | 2.5 | ||
| Cyber 74 | 4.0 | 2.5 | ||
| Cyber 6600 | 3.9 | 2.4 | ||
| Cyber 174 | 3.5 | 2.2 | ||
| Cyber 930-31 | 2.9 | 2.6 | ||
| Cyber 730-1 | 2.6 | 1.6 | ||
| Cyber 932-11 | 2.5 | 2.3 | ||
| Cyber 73-2 | 2.4 | 1.5 | ||
| Cyber 173 | 2.2 | 1.35 | ||
| Cyber 930-11 | 2.3 | 1.6 | 1.4 | |
| Cyber 830 | 2.0 | 1.4 | 1.25 | |
| Cyber 720 | 1.6 | 1 | ||
| Cyber 172 | 1.6 | 1 | ||
| Cyber 6400 | 1.6 | 1 | ||
| Cyber 815 | 1.3 | 0.8 | ||
| Cyber 73 | 1.5 | 0.9 | ||
| Cyber 171 | 1.2 | 0.75 | ||
| Cyber 72 | 1.1 | 0.7 | ||
| Cyber 810 | 1 | 1 | 0.62 |
The DEC VAX 11/780 was rated as 1 MIPS by the Whetstone benchmark, a figure that equals a typical workload. DEC used this VAX 11/780 performance as its own relative performance base. Thus 1 VAX Unit of Performance (VUP) equals 1 MIPS.
DEC rated most multiple CPU systems as n* the VUP of a single processor, not taking into account the system overhead (sometimes over 20%). For that reason, competitors talked about a MIPS being a “Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed” or even about the “Marketing Indicator of Processor Speed“.
For what it is worth, the CYBER 810 performance (the base of the left column above) equals 0.91 MIPS, the CYBER 932-11 rated 2 MIPS and the CYBER 990 (scalar) 25 MIPS.