Searching for a Solaris Workstation finally posted to USENET
David G. Hough at validgh
dgh
Sat Dec 11 18:57:52 PST 1993
Look for it in comp.unix.solaris or comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.
Here's the beginning, in its so-far final form.
Obtaining and configuring Solaris Unix on a system of commodity PC components
can be surprisingly complicated. Three possible approaches include:
* Buy a collection of components, put it together, and try to get it to
work with Solaris.
* Buy an integrated Windows 3.1 system and try to get it to work with
Solaris.
* Buy an integrated Solaris system and try to get it to work.
I report my experiences with the latter two approaches, which sometimes
turn out much like the first approach. But systems from AMG and Mobius would
have booted standalone but for minor mechanical glitches. Plug and play on a
pre-existing network requires running sys-unconfig, rebooting, and answering
the same questions you'd get installing the software - but it's much faster.
I also report -g compilation time and -O execution time results for SPEC
and Perfect codes, comparing Solaris PC's to each other and to SPARCstations.
Comments, suggestions, and requests for "tbl | troff -ms" source are wel-
come to dghavalidgh.com.
Conclusions reached:
You can buy collections of components, and you can buy integrated tested
systems, and you do have to pay extra for the integration and test. That is
why complete integrated and tested systems may cost more than the sum of the
component prices from the same source. It is worthwhile to have an expert
spend a little time instead of you spending a lot of time, unless you want to
become an expert. If you don't want to become an expert, buy from a source
that integrates and tests the hardware and software that you plan to use.
A refurbished SS2 with Weitek PowerUp provides the best performance/price
for CPU-bound scientific computation among the alternatives considered in this
report. Measured PowerUp CPU performance is in line with Weitek claims.
The Mobius Protege 66 provides the best performance/price for CPU-bound
scientific computation among the Solaris PC alternatives considered in this
report.
66DX2 PC's are better than 50DX PC's for the kinds of problems considered
in this report, but not as much better as one might suppose.
Fast SCSI disks on a slow shared network can be faster than unshared
local ordinary SCSI disks.
Performance anomalies abound in networked multi-user systems. Even when
the network is quiet and only one user is active.
SUMMARY: Floating-point performance and performance/price
The following prices are from the price comparison configurations
described later, while the following performance figures are from the perfor-
mance comparison configurations described later, which are generally similar
but not identical to the corresponding price comparison configurations. The
following performance figures measure floating-point performance primarily,
integer performance secondarily, "local" disk and "remote" net I/O performance
to a minor extent, and graphics not at all. Graphics performance varies con-
siderably among these systems, which should be taken into account when compar-
ing price and performance/price: thus Mobius PC performance/price figures
benefit from less expensive graphics and SCSI controllers than the ATI Graph-
ics Ultra Pro 2MB and Adaptec 1742 installed on the AMG and Gateway PC's.
-O execution compilat
Price -O ~fp92/ -O median %/ -g medi
$K System ~fp92 $K perf % $K perf %
5.4 Mobius 66DX2 remote 13 2.4 25 4.6 37
5.6 RFB SS2 remote 15 2.7 33 5.9 47
5.8 Quadra 800 remote 5.8 1.0 11 1.9 24
6.4 AMG 50DX remote 11 1.7 22 3.4 39
7.0 RFB SS2+PowerUp remote 23 3.3 48 6.9 60
7.4 Gateway 66DX2 remote 13 1.8 26 3.5 41
7.6 SPARCclassic remote 15 2.0 33 4.3 46
5.4 Mobius 66DX2 local 13 2.4 25 4.6 38
5.6 RFB SS2 local 15 2.7 33 5.9 49
6.4 AMG 50DX local 11 1.7 22 3.4 40
7.0 RFB SS2+PowerUp local 24 3.4 47 6.7 62
7.4 Gateway 66DX2 local 13 1.8 26 3.5 46
7.6 SPARCclassic local 15 2.0 32 4.2 49
19.7 SS10/40/41 4.1.3 local 37 1.9 82 4.2 99
Conclusion: The refurbished SS2 with Weitek PowerUp provides the best
performance/price for CPU-bound scientific computation among the alternatives
considered in this report.
Conclusion: The Mobius Protege 66 provides the best performance/price for
CPU-bound scientific computation among the Solaris PC alternatives considered
in this report.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
METHODS for obtaining Solaris PC's
REQUIREMENTS for Solaris PC's
SPECIFICATIONS for PC price quotes
PRICE QUOTES - MSDOS/Windows PC systems
PRICE QUOTES - Solaris PC system
WARNINGS to consider with price quotations
PRICE comparison configurations
PERFORMANCE comparison configurations
Performance Comparisons - SPEC Ratios
Performance tests
Performance Comparisons - Against SPARCstation 10/41
Performance comparisons - Head-to-Head
PC Linux
Unix PC information sources
Installation: AMG Solaristation
Installation: Gateway 4DX2-66E
Installation: Mobius Protege
Installation: Weitek PowerUp
Future directions
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