prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) (06/22/89)
A few weeks ago, I posted the following message to comp.sys.misc and
comp.sys.sun:
------------------------------
From: rclaeson@erbe.se (Robert Claeson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Opinions on Solbourne computers wanted
Reply-To: rclaeson@erbe.se (Robert Claeson)
[This was recently posted to comp.sys.misc, but since I didn't receive
a single reply there, I'm posting it again to this newsgroup.]
I have in front of me a packet of marketing material on Solbourne's
SPARC-equipped and Sun 4 compatible workstations. They sure look
good. Being able to run SunOS and all Sun 4 applications and that.
And it has performance. But...
I haven't heard much about these quite new machines. Is there anyone
out there who uses them? If so, I'd like to hear your opinions on
the machines and the company Solbourne. Please reply via e-mail.
I'll summarize to the net if I receive enough replies of interest.
------------------------------
Well, there apparently is enough interest, since I received more
"me too" messages than real opinions. And now the messages has
stopped dropping in, so I felt that it was time to compile that
summary and post it.
The rest of this article contains the replies I got, slightly edited
(I left out most of the headers and deleted a small part of one message).
Enjoy!
Robert
------------------------------
Date: 23 May 89 19:09:56 PDT (Tue)
From: donegan@zardoz.uucp (Steve Donegan - Owner)
To: rclaeson@erbe.se
I beleive zardoz! is a Solbourne, and I have read some good things about the
performance expansion from 1 to 4(?) SPARC boards and multi-processor SUN
4.0 OS compatability. Prices I've heard are in the >20k$ for a 1 processor
box.
---
Steven P. Donegan These opinions are given on MY time, not
Area Telecommunications Engineer Western Digital's - They wouldn't agree!
Western Digital Corp.
stanton!donegan || donegan@stanton.UUCP || donegan%stanton@UUCP
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 89 23:31:16 EDT
From: pjg@urth.cc.Buffalo.EDU (Paul Graham)
To: rclaeson@erbe.se
Organization: University at Buffalo
we're expanding our timeshare environment with some sparc equipment. we
decided on some sun stuff and a 2 processor solbourne. we had one here for
a week and it worked just fine (we stuck a 4.0.3beta automounter on it and
it worked fine). they have asymetric multi's so i'm not sure how it will
work out with all the system calls/i-o going through a single XX MIPS*
processor. while it was here it was the fastest unix box we had for the
few things we could do with it.
*XX mips is some value beyond 20.
--
paul
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Date: Tue, 6 Jun 89 07:36:49 EDT
From: lamson@sierra.crd.ge.com (Scott Lamson)
To: rclaeson@erbe.se
I had a solbourne 2 cpu color system for evaluation. it was
subsequently bought here by another group as a group file/compute
server. after some initial problems (during beta period), it ran
well. network IO seemed slow to me, but they say they remedied that.
Compatibility was excellant. Hardware support was great; software
support (as they rely on sun) was not much better than sun except that
they have much better X window support. We may yet buy one as a group
compute server for X window terminals. No reservations about company
or compatibility. everything else no worse than sun.
Scott| ARPA: lamson@crd.ge.com
Lamson| UUCP: uunet!steinmetz!sierra!lamson
(518)387-5795| UUCP: uunet!steinmetz!lamson!crd
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 89 08:31:04 EDT
From: david@pyr.gatech.edu (David Brown)
To: prc@erbe.se
Organization: Armstrong State College, Savannah, Ga.
[An included copy of my original message deleted.]
Hi, Robert. I, too, have found the recent Solbourne announcements interesting.
I'm test-driving a Solbourne 4/602 for the next week or so. I'm pretty
impressed. It looks well built, and has a lot of bang for the bucks. If
you can get your hands on this month's UNIX REVIEW, there is a very good
article on Solbourne. They tested on against Sun-4, MIPS, HP and a couple
of others. It faired pretty well.
Good luck,
David
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Brown Armstrong State College, Savannah, Georgia
uucp: ...!gatech!gitpyr!david ARPA: david@pyr.gatech.edu
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 89 10:33:17 EDT
From: jim@applix.com (Jim Morton)
To: rclaeson@erbe.se
We have experience with their machines because we did a verification test
of our Sun-4 port of our Alis office software on it. I was very impressed.
They seemed like a very ruggedly built machine. Of course we only had a few
hundred hours of experience with it, but my impression was that they really
wanted to overcome the QA failings of Sun's hardware - monitors, video
boards, memory failures, etc. As for software compatibility, we hit 100%
except for an ioctl() to the type-4 keyboard, which as soon as we pointed
out to them they fixed. Overall I give them high marks. If Suns have a
clone market, Solbourne is the COMPAQ of the market.
--
Jim Morton, APPLiX Inc., Westboro, MA
...uunet!applix!jim
jim@applix.COM
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 89 11:05:53 CDT
From: doug%ross@cs.utexas.edu (doug carmean)
To: rclaeson@erbe.se
I've just caught up on reading comp.sys.sun and noticed your request
for information on Solbourne computers. We have a Solbourne Series
4/600 that we have been using for about 3 months now. We mostly run GDT
from Silicon Compiler Systems and Dracula from Cadence on the thing.
We have had absolutely no compatibility problems with any of the
stuff that we have thrown at it. The only problem with it so far
has been the keyboard and the mouse. The keyboard absolutely flaked
out and they (Solbourne) had to send us a new one. Now the mouse
is starting to get a flakey and we may have to get a new one of
those.
I ran Dhrystone 2.1 on the Solbourne and compared it to one of our
Sun 4/110:
Solbourne 16.8k
Sun 4/110 12.2k
both version were compiled on the respective machines using the -O4
switch, thats why the numbers might seem inflated over some of the
others you see on the net.
--
-doug carmean ross!doug@cs.utexas.edu
-ROSS Technology, 7748 Hwy 290 West Suite 400, Austin, TX 78736
-Don't let my sarcasm fool you: I have no sense of humor.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 89 12:42:26 CDT
From: dan@rose3.Rosemount.COM (Dan Messinger)
To: rclaeson@erbe.se
Organization: Rosemount Inc., Burnsville, MN
I've played on a Solbourne for a short time. It was a dual processor
system. And it was obvious. We were playing on the system's console
and an X terminal right beside it. It felt like we were running on
two different systems. I would give it strong consideration, if I
was looking for a file server or compute server. But at the moment,
I'm looking for personal workstations. Solbourne has nothing that
can compete with a Sparcstation 1 right now.
Dan Messinger
--
Robert Claeson E-mail: rclaeson@erbe.se
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