lori@hacgate.UUCP (Lori Barfield) (12/13/89)
Look in _Digital_Review_ for a complete benchmark analysis of the DN2500.
I agree with their summation: "The Domain Series 2500 is not a
high-performance workstation, but its entry level price will serve
to put a workstation on a desk that may otherwise not have had one."
Unfortunately, they test a fully loaded machine ($16,295!) and sound a bit
like they expected it to have options like a fully loaded something-else-
besides-a-lowest-end-model. If you had $16k to spend on an Apollo, would
you even consider a DN2500? I think the DN2500 is about giving sys admins
choices like "shall I buy another laser printer for $8k or *two* DN2500s?"
They were very thorough as usual and offer these test results:
"Test results show that Apollo's Domain Series 2500 did better on DR Lab's
CPU 2 Benchmark Suite than two other systems that use the same Motorola
68030 CPU chip (albeit at a lower clock speed [16 vs. 20 MHz]): the
Macintosh IIcx and the HP 9000 Model 340. The Apollo machine didn't do as
well compared with a Sun [-4/110] workstation and the DEC VAXstation 3100."
The configuration was 200MB internal, 16MB RAM, 802.3 EN, 19" mono.
The price for the equivalent HP was $21,450.
Anyone out there know what the Mac, Sun, or VAX would run?
Here are the DN2500 "pros" they listed:
o "Base model is priced as low as $3,990"
o Gives users choice of System V and 4.3BSD Unix, and Aegis environments
[they didn't exactly put that right; also don't forget the Korn Shell]
o "Is binary-compatible with all other Apollo workstations except the
Domain 10000"
o "Can be networked easily"
[this was referring to: 1) ease of adding Apollo node vs. Sun node,
a "tremendous advantage";
2) Domain's method where all disks on a net
appear as one universal file system;
3) binary compatibility of all but DN10k]
o "Supports X Window System"
The "cons":
o "CPU performance is below that of other entry-level systems"
o "Price of fully equipped model is more than four times higher than
price of base model"
Flames, anyone?
...lorikrowitz%richter@UMIX.CC.UMICH.EDU (David Krowitz) (12/14/89)
No flames whatsoever. The diskless DN2500's we have are 80% the speed of our DN3500's. The price (for a university) was $2500 for the 15" screen and $3400 for the 19" screen. Memory can be bought from Apollo for about $500/MB (same as Sun charges for Sparcstation 1 memory) or from any IBM-PC clone memory manufacturer for about $100/MB (we paid $115/MB for 1MBx9, 80ns memories from Allegence Group, Inc). It's well known that the cost of disk drives is now equal to or greater than the cost of the CPU, memory, and monitor in a system, so seeing that the fully loaded system is 4X the base model is not at all surprising. As for the fact that they're not as fast as a high-end workstation ... what do you expect for a list price of $3990? Well, what I got was a machine which is twice as fast as my DN330's, DN560's, and DSP90's; three times faster than my DN460's and DN660's; has higher resolution screens; holds more RAM (16Mb with 1Mb SIMMS, 64Mb with 4Mb SIMMS) that can be bought for 1/10th of what I had to pay for DN3000 memory; and that can be bought for a price ($2500) equal to what I would pay for a 1Mb Mac SE/20 (MIT discount price for a 1Mb machine with 68000 chip, no floating point, no ethernet, low resolution screen, no virtual memory, 1 floppy and 1 20Mb disk). At this price I can finally afford to unplug the DN3xx/DN4xx/DN5xx/DN6xx machines and replace them. -- David Krowitz krowitz@richter.mit.edu (18.83.0.109) krowitz%richter.mit.edu@eddie.mit.edu krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet (in order of decreasing preference)
lampi@pnet02.gryphon.com (Michael Lampi) (12/15/89)
It is true that if you buy disk storage from Apollo that you will spend as
much for it as you did for the rest of your DN-2500. However, if you buy your
storage from third parties you will find that you can get it for about half
that price.
Michael Lampi MDL Corporation 213/782-7888 fax 213/782-7927
UUCP: {ames!elroy, <routing site>}!gryphon!pnet02!lampi
INET: lampi@pnet02.gryphon.com
"My opinions are that of my corporation!"rtp1@tank.uchicago.edu (raymond thomas pierrehumbert) (12/15/89)
Concerning the price of disk space for the DN2500: What is a good source of third party SCSI drives for this machine? What do they cost?