Haim Mendelson – Communications of the ACM

Research and Advances Dec 1 1987

Economies of scale in computing: Grosch’s law revisited

Does Grosch's law apply in the 1980s? A look at the price and performance of computer systems concludes that there are no economies of scale in computing. Computer technology is characterized by constant returns to scale, a fact that has important implications on future centralization/decentralization decisions.

Architecture and Hardware

Author Archives

Research and Advances Mar 1 1985

Pricing computer services: queueing effects

This article studies the effects of queueing delays, and users' related costs, on the management and control of computing resources. It offers a methodology for setting price, utilization, and capacity, taking into account the value of users' time, and it examines the implications of alternative control structures, determined by the financial responsibility assigned to the data processing manager.

Architecture and Hardware

Research and Advances Feb 1 1979

Optimal storage allocation for serial files

A computer system uses several serial files. The files reside on a direct-access storage device in which storage space is limited. Records are added to the files either by jobs in batch processing mode, or by on-line transactions. Each transaction (or job) generates a demand vector which designates the space required in each file for record addition. Whenever one file runs out of space, the system must be reorganized. This paper considers several criteria for best allocating storage space to the files.

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