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John,
as Laurence Sterne once said, "Nothing is so perfectly amusing as a total
change of ideas." I have used computers for 20 years and I can say the
350/100 speed, when it is available, will be sufficient for most computing
for many years to come. You mentioned the 6/2 hour processing time required
for your apps. In order for these figures to have any meaning, I would have
to know what processor, drive architecture, and operating system you are
using. Chances are you have a processor slower than a Pentium 133 or your
system is configured incorrectly.
I do have some constructive, but not naive, advice for you. This applies if
you use Windows 95 v4.00.950a, have an EIDE hard drive (and most users do),
and want to run long hard drive intensive tasks in the background. You can
use the multitasking features of the IDE interface by downloading and
installing the Intel Busmastering driver. The driver and all instructions
can be found at:
http://www.tomshardware.com/hdd.html
under the title "The Bus Master DMA Feature of the Triton"
The driver allows the "HDD to communicate directly with the main memory
without using much CPU resources." A warning though, you must make a backup
of the Registry (SYSTEM.DAT & USER.DAT), SYSTEM.INI, AND WIN.INI files before
making any changes to your system. This is because some users lose control
of their CD-ROM drive and must edit the Registry to change the second IDE
channel driver back to the default driver. You should already have your
CD-ROM drive on a different (second) channel than your HDD. Otherwise, your
HDD performance will be slower.
Installing the driver doesn't change your system, it simply adds the driver
to your Windows 95, probably c:\Windows\System\IOSUBSYS, directory and
changes your Control Panel settings. When you run those Explorations with
the new driver, you should notice you can run other apps much faster.
I have downloaded the driver but have not changed my system yet. I want to
backup the Registry or my entire system using a tape backup first. Since I
do not run large explorations or any HDD intensive tasks in the background
yet, I may wait before making these changes.
If you have Windows v950b, you can enable this feature in the HDD properties
screen of the System Manager. It is called DMA mode.
In a message dated 97-11-23 23:57:28 EST, manasco@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
<< I must say that after 20 years in the computer business I find your
comments amusing albeit naive. The fact that some on this listserv still
use a 486 probably proves they don't know how to use their computer or
Metastock well enough to justify having a computer. If you want to be an
average user performing ordinary tasks then a 486 will do just fine.
Each night I run explorations that take almost 6 hours to complete.
After they are over I switch to my options program for another 2 hours
of database work. The new explorations I am starting to work with employ
a lot of statistical analysis and will take even more time. Anything
that reduces the time my computer is occupied and increases the time I
can interact with it will certainly be worth the price. >>
John,
there will always be faster processors coming out. Whether the average end
users needs them or not, after the 350/100 MHz, will be debatable. As I
wrote before, my statements apply to the average user and even to MetaStock
users. Using databases involves heavy HDD usage. Only an Ultra-Wide
SCSI-III should be used. Anything else is a waste of time and indicates
ignorance on the part of the user. Notice how I haven't even mentioned a
CPU.
MetaStock v6.5 doesn't work in Windows v3.1.
Your predictions are way too optimistic. Do you have ANY how complex
parallel processing is? Having 2 or 4 processors is possible using NT right
now. However, you must be running at least 1 app for each processor for any
benefit. This is not parallel processing. On the average PC platform, I
doubt parallel processing will exist for at least 10 years. Besides, in 10
years processors will be so fast will we even need more than one?
Daniel L. Martinez
In a message dated 97-11-22 08:58:53 EST, you write:
<< Regarding your prognostications proclaiming no one will need a new
computer in 5 years you remind me on the senator in the 1840's ( I think
) who voted against creating the patent office because he felt
everything had already been invented so there was no need for one.
300 Mz is already too slow for people doing serious database work now.
And the programs and operating systems in 5 years will choke a 300 just
the way Windows95 and Metastock 6.5 will choke a 486 using Win3.1.
Personally I think in 5 years a lot of users will have parallel
processors or two computers to do their work. >>
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