[rescue] Advice on Octanes

[Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez]

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003, Kurt Huhn wrote:

>
> On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 16:49:00 -0400
> Dave McGuire wrote:
>
> > >
> > > The memory system of the Octane is on par if not slower than a
> > > P3-800, the
> > > P3 destroys the R10K in raw computation power, hence the Octane can
> > > have
> > > all the memory bw it wants, but since it is running a
> > > computationally and
> > > not data bound process it just can not compete with the P3 in those
> > > tasks.
> >
> >    That's interesting.  Then why is my Octane (a 200MHz R10K) so much
> > faster doing PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING than my cow-orker's 650MHz P3?
> >
> >    I call "bullshit".
> >
>
> I'll second that.  According to what I know, the Octane has 1GBps of
> dedicated memory bandwidth.  A computer with PC133 RAM has about 1 GBps
> of memory bandwidth - but it's not dedicated.  That means that the x86
> system's memory subsystem is going to be, in practice, very much slower
> because it also has to support PCI and AGP ports, as well as anything
> else on the bus.  So, in a system with PC133 memory on a 133Mhz FSB, the
> Octane is going to beat it up, take it's lunch money, and send it home
> crying.

I recommend a remedial computer architecture class before making such
statements, thanks :).