Author :
Wallich, Paul ; Belady, Laszlo ; Kellum, John
Abstract :
What does MIPS really mean? The acronym stands for the phrase “million instructions per second” (making the expression “one MIP” incorrect). The question then becomes how to define an instruction. One instruction found in every computer´s repertoire is the NOR or no-operation, but few people care how fast a computer can do nothing. Nor should MIPS be measured by the speed of execution of complex instructions — for example, evaluating a 31st-degree polynomial, which is a single instruction for Digital Equipment Corp.´s VAX.
