traymund@uiuc.edu (Tim Raymund) (03/11/91)
We've gotten a good offer from Harris on a NightHawk 4400, an
88100 based realtime unix machine. This offer competes with an
offer from DEC on a DECstation 5000.
After reviewing the spec sheets, I'm pretty favorably impressed by
Harris' offer.
There are some questions that I'm hoping someone can help with.
1. What's the SPEC rating (or MFLOPS) of the 4400 as offerred?
The 5000 does about 18.5 SPECmarks, the 3100 about 11.3. A SPECmark
is a measure of floating point performance. Don't be impressed by
MIPS - that's only integer stuff.
2. Are we getting:
SCSI interface?
3100 and 5000 use the SCSI. Currently its a good interface for
getting cheap peripherals.
Eithernet interface?
Thick or thin doesn't matter, but it must have it.
A good FORTRAN compiler?
We get VAX Fortran and the MIPS f77 from a software library.
A console/workstation?
DECstations come with 19" bw monitor, mouse and keyboard
8mm tape drive?
Nice for compatibility and data
? Disk, ? cpus, ? memory
3. Does their UNIX support NFS? Network File Serve: allows disks to
be shared across the network. Ultrix, the DEC version of
Unix, (obviously) can do it.
Does it include X11R4? X11 is a standard windowing system used
for the workstations. R4 is the latest release. The new Ultrix
doesn't have it, but it's very easy to add.
Does their Unix support disk striping? Disk striping can
significantly speed up i/o. The new Ultrix supports it.
4. What will it cost in maintenance: hardware and software? Currently
we have no regular hardware maint, though we probably pay a few
hundred per year for miscellaneous fix-ups, and we recently paid $2k for
those department vaxs. Software is $600/year for VAXstation 2000's,
$900/year for the VAXstation II, and $1200/year for the 3100 (I think).
Those prices will change by next year. We receive access to the complete
Ultrix op sys with no limit on the number of users, and various software
packages (windowing, graphics, compilers for most popular languages,
etc.)
Potentially, a 4 CPU version of the 4400 could be almost 10x the
speed of the 3100. That's quite a bit of raw computing power...
A single CPU version should be at least twice as fast.
By comparison, the 5000 is one and a half to two times faster.
DECstation 5000 we are considering: $12k
19" bw monitor, mouse, keyboard
R3000 MIPS risc processor, 16 Mb memory, 600 Mb disk
18.5 SPECmarks
Ultrix 4.0 (BSD 4.3) and MIPS f77 compiler
SCSI device (up to 7) and thin Eithernet
Prices could change soon as DEC is set to announce a new (faster)
version of the 5000.
Thanks for any info!
tim raymund
traymund@uiwpl.ece.uiuc.edu
--
Tim Raymund
Wave Propagation Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Illinois, 1406 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801-2991 USA
Internet: t-raymund@uiuc.edu Phone: 217/333-2931 FAX: 217/244-5624
--
=========================== MODERATOR ==============================
Steve Stevenson {steve,fpst}@hubcap.clemson.edu
Department of Computer Science, comp.parallel
Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-1906 (803)656-5880.mabellturner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu (Staff- Bob S Turner) (03/13/91)
In article <1991Mar11.132225.13679@hubcap.clemson.edu> traymund@uiuc.edu (Tim Raymund) writes: > >We've gotten a good offer from Harris on a NightHawk 4400, an >88100 based realtime unix machine. This offer competes with an >offer from DEC on a DECstation 5000. I can't answer specifics about the 4400, but I can answer general question on Harris Equipment. (We are the happy owners of an HCX-9) >1. What's the SPEC rating (or MFLOPS) of the 4400 as offerred? >2. Are we getting: > SCSI interface? Harris supports SCSI and SMD on the VME bus so I would expect SCSI to be available. > Eithernet interface? I know all machines support TCP/IP and Ethernet. Bets are on a 15pin AUI > A good FORTRAN compiler? Harris has an excellant compiler - hf77 (suprise :-) it supports most VAX extensions and all the wonderful Harris H-series extensions > A console/workstation? > 8mm tape drive? Don't know about any of the above. >3. Does their UNIX support NFS? Network File Serve: allows disks to Yes no problem here. We use it on the HCX. > Does it include X11R4? X11 is a standard windowing system used I'm not sure. But it could be added easily. >4. What will it cost in maintenance: hardware and software? Currently Again depending on your configuration. >Potentially, a 4 CPU version of the 4400 could be almost 10x the [Opinion Mode on] You didn't mention the OS you were getting (there are three UNIX versions commercial, realtime or C2 secure) so I don't know the application. Harris is very strong right now in real-time systems for data collection and simulation. The Nighthawk's context switch speed is among the best in the industry. If you have a real-time application Harris is your best choice. Otherwise, its a more difficult decision to make. [Opinion mode off] Bob Turner Network Manager, School of Engineering 513-229-3171 turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu Univ. of Dayton, Engineering Computing Center-KL211, Dayton OH 45469 "Its the end of the net as we know it..And I feel fine" -- ==================================================================== Bob Turner Network Manager, School of Engineering 513-229-3171 turner@udecc.engr.udayton.edu Univ. of Dayton, Engineering Computing Center-KL211, Dayton OH 45469 -- =========================== MODERATOR ============================== Steve Stevenson {steve,fpst}@hubcap.clemson.edu Department of Computer Science, comp.parallel Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-1906 (803)656-5880.mabell