plocher%sally@Sun.COM (John Plocher) (09/13/89)
You asked for a "form" to evaluate motherboards. While, here is one that might work. I even filled it in with info from the board I have. I would be interested in fleshing this out and then maintaining a centeral database of these "evaluations". I am rather well connected here at Sun, so it shouldn't be too hard to set up a simple mail archive server... (famous last words :-) Please use this as a DRAFT - don't y'all jump in and start posting these forms with your system info - lets work on the form, not the data right now. Should we add things like Dhrystones, Landmark speed, Norton numbers.... What else have I forgotten? -John Plocher ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOTHERBOARD EVALUATION FORM --------------------------- Part 1 is a technical overview of the motherboard in question. This part is should completed once for the specific hardware. The other 2 parts may be updated many times, by many people. Note that the prices are very date-specific. $2200 for a 4MB 25MHZ board in May 1989 is a good price since other boards were selling for $3500. Today, the median price for a 25MHz board is closer to $2000, so the "good" price of $2200 doesn't look so hot. Part 2 is meant to be a pointer to where the board is avaliable (Mail order house, retail store...) and the prices they charge. NOTE: These prices may have little to do with the "Suggested Retail Price" found in part 1. Part 3 is the software reference section. This part documents the software which has been tested on the system. Part 4 is for comments by users of the system PART 1 ------ System Name ........................: Abacus 386/25 Motherboard Mfgr ...................: some Singapore mfgr Submitted by .......................: John Plocher <plocher@sally.sun.com> Date prices taken ..................: May 1989 System clock speed .................: 25MHz CPU (model/step) ...................: 80386-25 Double Sigma Rated CPU speed ....................: 25MHz Weitek socket (1167 or 3167) .......: 3167 Seperate 387 socket ................: Yes 387 speed ..........................: 25MHz Base Memory ........................: 4MB Max Memory on motherboard ..........: 4MB Max Memory in system ...............: 16MB Cost per Meg for add'l memory ......: $329 for 0K 12MB board + $22.50/1Mx1 DRAM Memory speed (ns) ..................: 100 Memory type ........................: 1MB x 1 Page Mode DRAM Cache size .........................: 32Kb Intel 82385 Cache Controller Cache speed ........................: unknown How can cache be disabled ..........: unknown Bus type (ISA, EISA, MCA, other) ...: ISA Bus speed ..........................: 8MHz Number of 8 bit slots .............: 3 Number of 16 bit slots .............: 5 Number of 32 bit slots .............: 1 (uses one 8 bit slot) 32 bit slot compatability ..........: 32 bit boards avaliable from mfgr ..: 4MB and 12MB Builtin I/O Serial ports ...............: none Parallel Ports .............: none Disk controller ............: none Video controller ...........: none BIOS type ..........................: Award BIOS Version .......................: unknown ROM Setup program ..................: Setup and Diagnostics Size ...............................: AT Form factor Power Requirements .................: 5v @ 6a Price (Suggested Retail) ...........: $3000 PART 2 ------ Retail and Mail Order vendors. Include Name, Address, Phone number and price. Also indicate your opinion of the vendor if you wish. Do they offer support, what else do they sell, ... Micro1 557 Howard San Fransisco, CA 94105 (415) 974-5439 (800) 338-4061 $2200 May, 1989 Stay away from them - they are in Chapter 11 and they are more interested in getting your money than in you getting any product... PART 3 ------ Software testing. Which software has been this board been tested with? Xenix, Unix (Whose?), OS/2 (uugh ;-). Strong and weak points. etc... [plocher@sally.Sun.COM Tue Sep 12, 1989] Microport Unix 3.0e Bell Tech Unix 3.1 Everix ENIX 3.2 (June 89 version) ATT Unix V3.2 ATT Unix V4.0 Strong points: Fast - System CPU bound throughput is the same as the Compaq 386/25 Works well with the DPT Caching disk controller, and all other hardware I have thrown at it. Weak Points: There is no documented way of bypassing the cache in order to use I/O boards that have dual ported memory on them. PART 4 ------ Comments
rick@pcrat.uucp (Rick Richardson) (09/20/89)
In article <124601@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> plocher@sun.UUCP (John Plocher) writes: >I even filled it in with info from the board I have. > >Motherboard Mfgr ...................: some Singapore mfgr > .... >Software testing. Which software has been this board been tested with? > .... >ATT Unix V4.0 John: Is Sun letting you take home copies of SVR4, or what? No wonder the OSF was so pissed about the AT&T-Sun alliance. I mean, we can't have home hackers getting the latest stuff before DEC, HP, IBM, etc., now can we? Got any benchmarks for us? Or is this just a tease (oh stop thaat)! -Rick -- Rick Richardson | Looking for FAX software for UNIX ?????? PC Research,Inc.| WE'RE SHIPPING uunet!pcrat!rick| Ask about our FaxiX - UNIX Facsimile Software (tm) (201) 389-8963 | Or our JetRoff - troff postprocessor for the HP LaserJets
plocher@sally.Sun.COM (John Plocher) (09/21/89)
In article <1989Sep20.045629.8882@pcrat.uucp> rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson) writes: >In article <124601@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> plocher@sun.UUCP (John Plocher) writes: >>Software testing. Which software has been this board been tested with? >>ATT Unix V4.0 > >John: > Is Sun letting you take home copies of SVR4, or what? >No wonder the OSF was so pissed about the AT&T-Sun alliance. >I mean, we can't have home hackers getting the latest stuff before >DEC, HP, IBM, etc., now can we? I hope there was a :-) in there somewhere, but in case there weren't, some CYA ... The machine is being used *at work* (it's that or use a slow 16 MHZ WGS6386 :-) My job is to port Sun's X11/NeWS to Vr4.0 for inclusion on the Unix International System Vr4.0 source release tapes. Now, I am a hacker (in the olde form of the word), and I like to dig into new things, so after using Vr4 for several months now I can see why OSF would be "so pissed" :-) But I'd attribute that to envy, since a major OSF member (HP) has declared that OSF/1 would be "unusable", and that they would have to wait for OSF/2 sometime in 1992 :-) :-) -John (Speaking only for me-self) Plocher