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Re: Performance of student version of Mathematica?

• To: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net
• Subject: [mg671] Re: Performance of student version of Mathematica?
• From: jburne at connix.com (John Burnette)
• Date: 8 Apr 1995 09:35:52 -0400

In article <3m55ub$gm7 at news0.cybernetics.net>,
Kale Beckwitt <kaleb at uclink2.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>I am going to purchase the Windows version of Mathematica and I can get a 
>VERY good deal on the student version of the software through the store at
>the student store at my university. Unfortunately, this version does not
>utilize a math-co-processor. I was wondering if anyone has any experience

I suppose it is a matter of opinion whether to capitalize the "VERY" in 
your post. I personally think it is absurd to force the non-use of an FPU 
for MATHEMATICS software!! As we move into faster processor chips 
(particularly the powerpc) will we get pushed into the absurd situation of 
being forced to run the software in emulation mode? The NeXT academic 
community used to get the software INCLUDED with their computers however 
when they paid for "upgrades" suddenly their multiuser programs (the 
point of UNIX computing) suddenly had code inserted to force it to be 
single user.

Deep breath.... I guess my point is I have severe philosophic problems 
with a company who intentionally cripples their software before selling 
it to educational organizations.  In my opinion if Wolfram wants to sell 
less for less to education, I would BEG them to consider selling full 
speed software with smaller libraries.  I'd say most, by far, of the 
academic users of Mathematica could get away with 25% of the capability 
of the program.  I personally believe they would get far more market 
penetration in this manner.

Back to your particular question, after using the PowerPC native version, 
there is NO WAY I would go back to a non-FPU version of any kind. It has 
to be 5-10 times faster.

just my $.02