[geeks] Surprised

[Sridhar the POWERful]

On Sat, 20 Apr 2002, Brian Hechinger wrote:

> > Now I'm interested.  What OS will a Power2 run?  What should one look
> > for in these systems?
>
> AIX.  there is no NetBSD port to MCA based RS/6000 boxes, and i'm not sure about
> linux since i'd run AIX before i ran linux.

Linux only works on the PCI/ISA PReP machines.  The IBM supported Linux
only works on eServer pSeries and 44P.

> look for POWER2SC or higher CPU.  a POWER2 or POWER machine would still kick a
> large amount of ass, but prices are low enough that the newer cpu (POWER2 vs
> POWER) with the secondary cache is a wise investment.  the higher the clock
> the better of course, but keep in mind the relativity of it all.  my POWER2SC
> is 77Mhz, and i think they range from 60-180 (maybe even as high as 200? donno)
> so a 60Mhz or 70Mhz isn't a slow machine.

Your 77MHz processor is a POWER2.  It is not a POWER2SC.  A POWER2SC is
not a POWER2.  The slowest POWER2SC is 135 MHz.  The fastest POWER2 is 80
MHz.

> also, don't get tempted into buying a PowerPC RS/6000, cause even if they can
> go 300Mhz+ they are only 604e CPUs, and a low clockspeed POWER will kick their
> asses.  PowerPC is a severly watered down POWER cpu.
>
> one thing to note.  100Mbit MCA ethernet is harder to come by, but
> DOES exist. also, MCA FDDI shows up on ePay every once in a while.

I have a *whole bunch* of these new in box, if anyone is interested.

> sridhar can probably give better advice.

Thanks for the confidence.

Peace...  Sridhar