Talk:Grosch's law

Date inconsistency
I'm confused by the dates mentioned in the opening paragraph. It states this was observed in 1953 but later it states Cray observed it 2 years before (which should be 1951) except it references Business week in 1963 - a decade later? Which statement is incorrect?

"Grosch's law is the following observation of computer performance, made by Herb Grosch in 1953"

"Two years before Grosch's statement, Seymour Cray was quoted in Business Week (August 1963)"

Third formulation
Alas, I can't give a citation, but I recall reading a third formulation of Grosch's Law: "no matter how fast the hardware gets, the software boys piss it away." My admittedly fuzzy memory is that the formulation is from Grosch himself, but again, I don't have a reference to cite. Does anyone else recall this version? --209.234.74.28 16:48, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Maybe that was about Wirth's law? "Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster". 89.249.197.35 (talk) 12:12, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

I believe that it was published in the magazine Datamation in the 1960's as, "Anything the hardware boys come up with, the software boys will piss away." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.6.148.50 (talk) 17:04, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

Backwards interpretation
"To have a computer one hundred times as powerful as a modern PC the owner would need to pay only ten times as much" can't possibly be an accurate interpretation: it would imply that it would be cost-effective to get 9 of your friends to pool resources with you to buy a "supercomputer", and rent out time slices to 90 other people. The original quote is in terms of "economy" and is a bit harder to comprehend than if it were in terms of "cost": the problem here is probably the confusion between price and value (to the user). #Law_applied_to_clusters also alludes to the absurdity of the economy-of-scale interpretation. The most charitable I can be here is to note that "if ... you should expect" carries an ambiguity: between prediction and reciprocity.

The way I read the original, the law states a constraint on cost-effectiveness, not a causal relation between price and performance. A better interpretation might be, "If a computer costs 10 times more, you should only buy it if it is also at least 100 times faster." Bernd Jendrissek (talk) 23:30, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Nomen = omen
In our country Grosch was a silver coin (see Prague groschen). So. By accident there is a funny relation. For this guy made a statement about prizes;) I just wonder, could it be mentioned here ??? It is as if "coins finally said something usefull" ;) And grosch is also flickered horse name. Cc..aa..ll 03:42, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

I added it. But i do not know how better to call the section. Section should be there for it is something from different keg. Cc..aa..ll 05:19, 7 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I moved what you added to here (below in the blockquote) because I can't really understand what it is saying, but I do think it merits mention in the article. If you want to make this more clear and grammatical, then go ahead and put that version in. Also, make sure you don't sign what you add (that's only for this discussion area) :).

"Grosch also stands for small silver coins. Which were used in middle ages. This thing relates to Herb Grosh's statement which also mentions prize (economy). This might remind about nomen est omen saying, which in given context seem to be humorous.

Although memoization is used mainly in informatics. Meaing remains. Trying to remember one fact reminds of another, similar one."
 * undefinedvalue 01:10, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

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