gah@blft1.UUCP (Gregg Houck SysOp) (08/20/87)
I have a client who wants to have a 14 user unix based system.
These guys are tax prepairers. They want speed! There will be
times that all 14 users will be active prepairing tax information.
So there will be HEAVY number crunching as well as High Volume
I/O. Now, we have looked at using maybe a 386 machine under UNIX
for one. The question here is will a 386 handle the load. Its
been praised over and over with its MIPS of 3-4 being stated.
Another machine we have considered is the AT&T 3b2/600 or the 3b5
series. Or would be looking at something like the VAX series.
NOTE: When they say speed they are saying no delays over 5-7 seconds
responding to a load request etc, Not run time. They dont
want their men sitting around waiting for an aplication to
load.
Any Ideas out there???
Gregg Houck
..psuvax1!blft1!gah
(814)-355-9163 Home
(814)-237-9000 Workron@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) (08/21/87)
First some comments. The 3B5 is obsolete. It is replaced by the 3B15. The 386 is probably plenty fast for this. Your comment about "program loading" is probably more a factor of the machine configuration than the CPU speed. Having 14 users getting reasonable program startup requires decent disk performance (lacking in the AT&T micros solely due to a poor choice of disk drive) and adequate memory to prevent things from having to page/swap too much. You'll have to keep this in mind regardless of whether you go with a 3B, VAX, or INTEL based system. It is possible to configure each of these systems so that it will be a dog or a screamer. I have a 386 system at home with several megabytes of memory (at least 4, I don't remember, it's only on loan) and a nice speedy disk. It out performs my SUN 3/50 I have upstairs (4MB, 150MB MAXTOR drive). I've heard some pretty phenomenal claims about the 3B2/600, but I've been underwhelmed in the past, so I'll wait and see. Has anyone seen one yet? -Ron