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RE: A Question about Dual CPU systems
No, the software for Sun SPARCs is not expensive, or at least it
dosn't need to be expensize. For example almost anything that will
run under Linux on a PC will also run under Solaris on a SPARC.
Conversely, the software that is expensive on Sun (like Ocacle) is
just as expensive o the PC
For a good cross comparison look at www.spec.org The site has
mmany CPU types benchmarked many diferent ways Looking
at http://www.spec.org/osg/cpu2000/results/cfp2000.html you can
see that the Pentium IV is actually not bad. The real winner
however is the IBM 690 Power PC chip. It is twice as fast as the
best Pentium or Athalon even with the PPC's much lower clock speed.
--- Ed Troy <etroy@aeroconsult.com> wrote:
> I keep hearing how good the AMD Athelon chips are, and how fast they
> are.
> Since I am always looking for, and needing, the fastest computers I
> can
> get, they are interesting to me. My only problem is that it seems
> that
> every time I use something that is "compatible" or "just like", I end
> up
> with problems. This has been especially acute with printers that
> "were HP
> compatible", and the outputs were unusable in many cases when I tried
> to
> use HP drivers. I've had similar, but even more severe problems, with
>
> software running on dual processor machines, even though they were
> Intel.
> Specifically, I am wondering if anyone has ever had a problem running
> an
> operating system, or a software program, in the last few years, on an
> AMD
> processor. If not, then I will probably go to an Athelon on my next
> multi-processor unit. If not, I will probably go to a dual processor
> PIII
> Xeon system.
>
> In terms of pure, raw, power, I've been told by many sources that the
>
> Compac (used to be DEC) Alpha is the fastest computer available. But,
>
> unfortunately, there is little software available for it, unless you
> buy
> very expensive compilations of common software, or compile stuff
> yourself.
> I have noticed that the DEC Alphas tend to blow the doors off
> virtually
> anything else when it comes to processing Seti@home data, which is
> similar
> to the task we are talking about.
>
> A Sun workstation for less than $1k is obviously interesting, but the
>
> software tens to be very expensive. Does anyone know of links to
> speed
> comparisons between, say, Athelons, PIII, PIV, Sun, and Alpha
> computers?
>
> Thanks,
> Ed
>
> At 03:53 PM 5/13/2002, you wrote:
> >The marking folks at Intel are pretty smart. Here is what they
> >did when they went from the Pentium III to the Pentium IV.
> >
> >They figured correctly that "Joe Consumer" who shops at Best Buy
> >knows only one thing about computers "more Gigahurts is goodder"
> >
> >So in one brilliant move, they simplified the CPU logic so that it
> now
> >takes more clock cycles per operation and then run up the clock
> speed
> >so that now a 1Ghz P-III is about equal to a 1.4Ghz P-IV but the
> >P-IV is on a smaller die and costs less to manufacture. The Intel
> >bean counters are happy. Joe sees a higher clock speed and is happy
> >too.
> >
> >People who know what's up buy the Athalon XP/MP but Intel doesn't
> >care as people who know what's up account for about 0.01% of the
> >PC market.
> >
> >Sun is selling $995.00 SPARC based boxes now. These shouldn't be
> >overlooked. They only run at 500Hmz but they are full 64 bit CPUs
> >that do fast floating point and the box is only 1U tall.
> >
> >
> >
> >--- Bob Dubner <rdubner@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> > > Whether you go dual or single, I have some experience with
> > > floating-point
> > > number-crunching applications running under Windows.
> > >
> > > Think Athlon.
> > >
> > > Athlon CPU chips are cheaper, clock cycle for clock cycle, than
> > > Pentium
> > > chips. And their floating-point unit is more efficient. In my
> > > experience,
> ><SNIP>
> >
> >=====
> >Chris Albertson
> > Home: 310-376-1029 chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com
> > Cell: 310-990-7550
> > Office: 310-336-5189 Christopher.J.Albertson@aero.org
> >
> >__________________________________________________
> >Do You Yahoo!?
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>
>
=====
Chris Albertson
Home: 310-376-1029 chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com
Cell: 310-990-7550
Office: 310-336-5189 Christopher.J.Albertson@aero.org
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience
http://launch.yahoo.com