About two weeks ago (sorry for the delay...), I asked for advice about
choosing between a Solbourne S4000 and a Sun IPC. I got many replies
(thanks, see below) and some good advice:
* Eduardo Krell pointed out I should not be looking at MIPS, but
at SPECmarks, for performance comparison. In this case, it makes a
big difference.
* Ruth Milner made a point about the upgradability of an IPC --
now that a SPARCstation 2 is out, Sun has announced an upgrade
path only for the SS1/SS1+ models.
* There were some folks that spoke up for Solbourne because they
liked the company -- and some because they did not like Sun.
Some people asked for comparison data. So here's a set configurations
to compare (I chose a configuration at random...):
Sun IPC: 15.8 MIPS, 10 SPECmarks, 25 MHz clock
8MB RAM, diskless, 16" color monitor
$8,995
Solbourne S4000: 25.5 MIPS, 12 SPECmarks, 33 MHz clock
8MB RAM, diskless, 16" color monitor
$11,495
Solbourne will give 30% discount for educational folks like us, Sun will
give up to 40% (and perhaps higher?).
Some people said I should be comparing the S4000 to a SPARCstation 2.
But the SPARC 2 is at 28.5 MIPS and 21 SPECmarks -- and seems to blow
away the S4000 - but it is $14,995 at its base price (mono monitor,
207 MB disk).
Anyway, at $1,500 for 2 SPECmarks (more of a difference at our discount),
we're going with the IPC.
Thanks goes to the respondents (in random order):
George Planansky <gplan@aer.com>
Jeff Nieusma <nieusma@eclipse.Colorado.EDU>
Yuval Tamir <tamir@CS.UCLA.EDU>
Eduardo Krell <ekrell@ulysses.att.com>
Bill Selig <selig@xanth.msfc.nasa.gov>
Bill Krauss <kraussW%moravian.edu@RELAY.CS.NET>
M.W. Goheen <mwg8908@ultb.isc.rit.edu>
Mark Morrissey <bit!markm>
Gene Rockow (?) <rackow@antares.mcs.anl.gov>
Gene Saunders <Gene.Saunders@West.Sun.COM>
Jordan Hayes <jordan@Morgan.COM>
Ruth Milner <rmilner@zia.AOC.NRAO.EDU>
Mike Jipping
Hope College Department of Computer Science
jipping@cs.hope.edu (BITNET: JIPPING@HOPE)
"Anatidaephobia: The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck
is watching you."
-- Gary Larson
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