[rescue] The best 'rescue' workstation

[Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez]

On Sat, 23 Apr 2005, James Fogg wrote:
> I can't believe this question was asked on this list. CPU clocking has
> nothing to do with performance. It's all about architecture and I/O
> design. The Intel chip is a 20 year old design extended by marketroids
> into the new milenium.

No it is not, a Pentium III believe it or not such an old
microarchitecture when comparing it to the UltraSparc. BTW, there is a
clear difference between an ISA anda Microarchitecture. A 1Ghz P3 will
run circles around a US II integerwise unless you are more interested in
FP performance. On the good side of the P3 it can do out-of-order, which
and US can't and it as a hardware managed TLB, so believe it or not on a
per Mhz. basis a P3 is almost more efficient than a US II. However the UPA
switched architecture is far better than the half assed snooping bus
system that the P3 has for SMP.

> Depending on task, an Intel CPU is about equivalent to a decent CPU 1/2
> to 1/3 it's clock speed. So, it will be about equivalent to your 1ghz
> Intel box.

As usual it depends, for iteger codes (i.e. most desktop experiences) it
won't even be close (the Sparc that is).

Gotta gave the devil its due...