silvert@cs.dal.ca (Bill Silvert) (09/22/90)
I'm in the market for a Unix box and am considering the 4D/20.
I'd appreciate comments from readers of this group to help with the
decision.
Specifically, I like what I know of the machine, but am concerned about
whether it is fast enough to match the competition. The local vendor
let me use a 4D/25 so I have a good idea how the machine handles and
what the software is like, but at least on paper the 20 looks a lot
slower than the 25 or other competing machines.
Our main application is frequent recompilation and execution of
medium-sized Fortran programs (about 5000 lines). Both compilation time
and execution time are important (this is all ecological simulation
stuff). We don't have any heavy-duty graphics applications, although
having a good graphics machine is certainly fun, and it probably makes
for a better GUI.
We're comparing the 4D/20 to machines like the SPARCstation 1+ and the
HP 400s. Any information or advice would be very welcome.
--
William Silvert, Habitat Ecology Division, Bedford Inst. of Oceanography
P. O. Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, CANADA B2Y 4A2. Tel. (902)426-1577
UUCP=..!{uunet|watmath}!dalcs!biomel!bill
BITNET=bill%biomel%dalcs@dalac InterNet=bill%biomel@cs.dal.cacs122ae@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (09/22/90)
Before you buy a PI, take a close look at the IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320... CPU speed is much much faster. Marc
karron@MCIRPS2.MED.NYU.EDU (09/23/90)
> >Before you buy a PI, take a close look at the IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320... >CPU speed is much much faster. > >Marc > How does the IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320 compare to the newer 4d35 PI machines ? dan. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | karron@nyu.edu Dan Karron | | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New York University Medical Center | | 560 First Avenue \ \ Pager <1> (212) 397 9330 | | New York, New York 10016 \**\ <2> 10896 <3> <your-number-here> | | (212) 340 5210 \**\__________________________________________ | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
cs122ae@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (09/23/90)
/* Written 1:00 pm Sep 22, 1990 by karron@MCIRPS2.MED.NYU.EDU in ux1.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.sgi */ > >Before you buy a PI, take a close look at the IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320... >CPU speed is much much faster. > >Marc > How does the IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320 compare to the newer 4d35 PI machines ? dan. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | karron@nyu.edu Dan Karron | | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New York University Medical Center | | 560 First Avenue \ \ Pager <1> (212) 397 9330 | | New York, New York 10016 \**\ <2> 10896 <3> <your-number-here> | | (212) 340 5210 \**\__________________________________________ | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ /* End of text from ux1.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.sgi */
cs122ae@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (09/23/90)
/* Written 8:29 pm Sep 22, 1990 by cs122ae@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu in ux1.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.sgi */ /* Written 1:00 pm Sep 22, 1990 by karron@MCIRPS2.MED.NYU.EDU in ux1.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.sgi */ > >Before you buy a PI, take a close look at the IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320... >CPU speed is much much faster. > >Marc > How does the IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320 compare to the newer 4d35 PI machines ? dan. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | karron@nyu.edu Dan Karron | | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New York University Medical Center | | 560 First Avenue \ \ Pager <1> (212) 397 9330 | | New York, New York 10016 \**\ <2> 10896 <3> <your-number-here> | | (212) 340 5210 \**\__________________________________________ | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ /* End of text from ux1.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.sgi */ /* End of text from ux1.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.sgi */
cs122ae@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (09/23/90)
I dunno how the 4D/35 compares to the IBM's yet... but don't forget, IBM offers such features as complete X/Motif support, complete on-line hypertext documentation, really fast I/O, and state-of-the-art compilers. Anybody know benchmark ratings on the 4D/35 yet??? Marc
silvert@cs.dal.ca (Bill Silvert) (09/23/90)
In article <9009221949.AA01759@mcirps2.med.nyu.edu> karron%CMCL2.NYU.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu writes: >>Before you buy a PI, take a close look at the IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320. >>CPU speed is much much faster. > >How does the IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320 >compare to the newer 4d35 PI machines ? Maybe my original question wasn't clear. I can't afford an IBM or a 4D/35. I can't even afford a 4D/25 (which would be fast enough for me). I can afford a 4D/20 and asked about its performance. The budget is fixed because my organisation works that way. I simply cannot go overbudget. So if anyone can answer my original query it would be appreciated (I got one answer so far). -- William Silvert, Habitat Ecology Division, Bedford Inst. of Oceanography P. O. Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, CANADA B2Y 4A2. Tel. (902)426-1577 UUCP=..!{uunet|watmath}!dalcs!biomel!bill BITNET=bill%biomel%dalcs@dalac InterNet=bill%biomel@cs.dal.ca
spl@libra.cs.nps.navy.mil (steve lamont) (09/23/90)
In article <19400008@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> cs122ae@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu writes: >I dunno how the 4D/35 compares to the IBM's yet... but don't forget, IBM >offers such features as complete X/Motif support, complete on-line hypertext >documentation, really fast I/O, and state-of-the-art compilers. Does IBM's operating system work yet? [This isn't intended as a slam against IBM... I've just heard Bad Things about AIX from a lot of folks, including a former employee of Locus, the software house that did the port.] spl (the p stands for port-shmort...) -- Steve Lamont -- SciViGuy -- Phone number of the week: (408) 646-2572 Confuser Center / Code 51 / Naval Postgraduate School / Monterey, CA 93943 "There are no fleas in the Republican Army." - Italo Calvino, _The Baron in the Trees_
cs122ae@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (09/24/90)
Many things that have been said about AIX 3.1 have been based on pre-release code that IBM made available on demonstration machines before various bugs were fixed. In my experience, AIX 3.1 has matured into a very stable OS since that code was made available. Marc
shenkin@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Peter S. Shenkin) (09/24/90)
In article <19400008@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> cs122ae@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu writes: >Anybody know benchmark ratings on the 4D/35 yet??? I'm looking at the 4D-35 brochure from SGI. It's rated at 27 MIPS, 5.0 MFLOPS, both "(est)". It's got 64 kB data cache, 64 kB instruction cache, (compared to 32/64 on the 4D-25), will accept up to 128 Mb main memory Question: is this done using 8Mb SIMMS or by providing double the slots?. Another Question: what do I have to specify to a third party vendor to get 4MB SIMMS for my 4D-25 that I will be able to continue to use if I get the -35 upgrade? -P. ************************f*u*cn*rd*ths*u*cn*gt*a*gd*jb************************** Peter S. Shenkin, Department of Chemistry, Barnard College, New York, NY 10027 (212)854-1418 shenkin@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu(Internet) shenkin@cunixc(Bitnet) ***"In scenic New York... where the third world is only a subway ride away."***