[SunRescue] SS4/SS5/SS10 compatibility?

[Björn Ramqvist]

Dave McGuire wrote:
> 
<-snip->
> 
>   This wasn't benchmarking, this wasn't a bunch of college "engineers"
> standing around with ties and powerpoint presentations...this was a
> group of very serious "it'll compile cleanly with -Wall or it won't
> get committed to the tree" geeks in the wee hours of the morning,
> turning the bit rates up until the machines smoked.
> 
>   We all learned a great deal from that experience.
> 
>   Sorry for being long-winded, but I had a little time and felt like
> relating the experience in case anyone was interested.

Well, I seriously cannot place myself into that legue of so-called
"college engineers" either. I am an "admin", like most of the readers
here. I work as a consultant, or more as a human resource for companies
that need that need my knowledge, let alone beeing (almost) the only one
here in town (small town) with enough experience/skills in
Solaris/Tru64/HP-UX/IRIX.

Based upon my knowledge, numbers often speak for themselves. Often, not
always. SPECrates are more down-to-earth than hyped SPEC-numbers IMHO,
especially when you do MP and I/O.
As I was saying, and what James L. also pointed out, it has alot to do
with what your application requires. There's not much to argue about
where the SS5 would be placed in the business enviroment; desktop
day-to-day use, or simple technical administration. Ok, testing
purposes, whatever. But the thing is, when you actually need higher-end
workstation power, the SS20 is the way to go. Although pricey
CPU-modules, it still has some major advances over the MicroSPARC
architecture.
I hate so say "I agree", but I do agree with James L statement on memory
bus width etc etc...
Based upon hardware and costs I know what I would have done. Beeing as
sad as it is with a SM30 in that SS10, you'd go for a SM71 or SM81 to
beat the SS5/170. (not counting any satellite-based protocol converting)
It's a high pricetag on SM81's even nowadays, and without spending more
money just to get the SS10 snappier, I'd still go for the SS5/170.

Based upon my experience down at the computer club, the SS5/170's are
useful for just about everything, the SS4/110's feels dog-slow in
comparence. The Ultra1/140's are much nicer, ofcourse, but IMO the
SS5/170's will do good.
The SS20-612 is not quite as snappy until you do major multitasking.

We could discuss computer performance all day long if I had the time.
:-)

/Bjorn