[comp.sys.mips] RC2030-M/120-M/200 MIPS Impressions

adam@ncifcrf.gov (Adam W. Feigin) (10/03/89)

I'm looking into getting a workstation for my desk, and I'm
considering the RC2030 (maybe its the RC3030 now ??) and perhaps a
M/120 or M/200 Fileserver for our group. I've had no dealings with
MIPS in the past, so I'm interested in hearing from people who have
these beasties, and what they think about them, more specifically:

1) How is MIPSCo support, both HW and SW ??
2) I come from the 4.3 world, will I end up despising RISC/os like I despise
AIX ??
3) How reliable are the machines ??
4) I have heard that they are great performers..How do they compare to
similar machines from other vendors ?? (DS3100, SS1)

Thanks for your input. Please respond to me directly...I'll summarize
if there's interest.

                                                        AWF
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-- 
Internet: adam@ncifcrf.gov			Adam W. Feigin
UUCP: {backbonz}!ncifcrf!adam			Senior Systems Manager
Mail: P.O. Box B, Bldg 430	National Cancer Institute-Supercomputer Center
      Frederick, MD 21701		Frederick Cancer Research Facility

cliff@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Cliff Marcellus) (10/04/89)

In article <1350@fcs280s.ncifcrf.gov>, adam@ncifcrf.gov (Adam W. Feigin) writes:
> I'm looking into getting a workstation for my desk, and I'm
> considering the RC2030 (maybe its the RC3030 now ??) and perhaps a
> M/120 or M/200 Fileserver for our group. I've had no dealings with
> MIPS in the past, so I'm interested in hearing from people who have
> these beasties, and what they think about them, more specifically:

  You mean RS2030?  Good choice

> 
> 1) How is MIPSCo support, both HW and SW ??

  So far so good - I haven't received any s/w updates yet, but over the
  past 2 months that I've had my RS2030's -- the h/w support and telephone
  s/w support have been great.  My only REAL complaint is that I'm STILL
  waiting for my documentation sets!!!!  

> 2) I come from the 4.3 world, will I end up despising RISC/os like I despise
> AIX ??
   
    I too come from a 4.3BSD world (actually 4.1b, 4.1c, 4.2, and 4.3) and
    I do like RISC/os -- it's enough BSD to be comfortable, but I do have
    to admint, there are still many things from BSD that I would like
    (eg. disc quotas).  Oh well - maybe RISC.os 4.20 (...)

> 3) How reliable are the machines ??

  Hard to say - I've had several h/w problems at the start, but that is
  to be expected with a new machine -- only time will tell.

> 4) I have heard that they are great performers..How do they compare to
> similar machines from other vendors ?? (DS3100, SS1)

  Far superior the DS3100!! (and less expensive)  Our benchmarks (home grown)
  showed that the DS3100 was roughly 30% slower in floating point operations...

Cliff Marcellus                UUCP     : {any backbone}!calgary!ssg-vax-a!cliff
Institute for Space Research   DOMAIN   : cliff@ssg-vax-a.phys.UCalgary.CA
Dept of Physics and Astronomy  SPAN     : CANCAL::CLIFF
The University of Calgary                 "If it's not fun, don't do it!"

grunwald@foobar.colorado.edu (Dirk Grunwald) (10/05/89)

Are the MIPS boxes really cheaper than equiv. DEC boxes? The DECstation 3100
uses the R2000 chipset. I belive it's a little slower than the equiv. MIPS
boxes because of cache design ( or so I was told ). But I had thought the
DECstation was cheaper. Was this before or after discounts?

Dirk Grunwald -- Univ. of Colorado at Boulder	(grunwald@foobar.colorado.edu)