On 2003-02-20 mattias@beauty.se wrote:

> so, i'm assuming the x server on hpc-mips is smaller, and probably the kernel
> as well, but how much smaller? and are the programs generally bigger or
> smaller on hpc-mips and/or more or less memory hungry.

  Mips isn't an especially compact instruction set, so most things will be
somewhat larger.  X may be an exception since hpcmips doesn't use XFree.
The kernel is larger.  Otherwise, hpcmips uses almost all the same
programs as i386, so there is likely to be a small overall increase in
memory use.

> and the last question is whether the 168 mhz cpu is faster or slower than
> my p133. i don't need anything faster than what i have now, but it should
> be as fast since being able to play mp3's for eaxmple is a must.

  Not counting the lack of floating point, it is likely to be about half
the speed of the p133, although the difference can depend a great deal on
how the program is written.  The main benefit of hpcs is the long battery
life (the combined NEC cpu and companion chip take about half a watt).
There are a number of uses for which the power is adequate and the battery
life is a great benefit, but it isn't the same as a notebook.  It sounds
like you may really want a small notebook.

Matthew Orgass
darkstar@city-net.com