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