Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!csinc!rpeglar
From: rpeglar@csinc.UUCP (Rob Peglar)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: 386 machines are workstations? (Sun/386i)
Summary: Depends - which model?
Message-ID: <212@csinc.UUCP>
Date: 29 May 90 16:07:20 GMT
References: <136288@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <6537@vax1.acs.udel.EDU>
Organization: Control Systems, Inc., St. Paul MN
Lines: 41

In article <6537@vax1.acs.udel.EDU>, mccalpin@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (John D Mccalpin) writes:
> In article <136288@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> david@eng.sun.com (You'll feel good about yourself!) writes:
> >If you look at MIPS and memory bandwidth, a 386 class CPU driving a 1 Mb
> >dumb frame buffer is pretty marginal.  You have to tune the window system
> >code very carefully to get snappy interactive performance, and this was
> >never done for SunView on the 386i.
> >-- 
> >David DiGiacomo, Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, CA  david@eng.sun.com
> 
> Two related comments:
> (1) The NeXT machine is a pretty snappy UNIX(tm) box when running from
>     a dumb terminal. Of course, its response at the console is well known
>     as being less satisfying.
>     I have not played much with the local 386i, but it is much quicker

In a previous life, I used - it sat in my office - a Sun 386i/250.  This
machine had cache (I forget now, how much - 16KB, maybe?) and 8MB RAM.
Used stand-alone, I found the windowing system (SunView) just fine, no
problem, with the cg3 (again, I think) monitor.  Today, I have access
to a Sun 386i/150 - no cache.  It is *very* slow with SunView.  I
cannot complain (much) with X11R4 on it.  Even X11R3 is ok, from a
"seat-of-the-pants" evaluation.

Moral?  The Sun386i, not unlike many other machines, comes in different
flavors.  Your mileage will vary.  However, the apples-to-apples (well,
at least fruit-to-fruit) comparison betweeen SunView and X11R4 on the
same box is at least somewhat valid, IMHO.  SunView and its ilk are
rapidly moving up on the "pain-in-the-A" scale, compared to a public
(kinda) windowing/protocol/behavior system like X.

Submoral - if you really want SunView and snappy windowing, get a 
386i/250.  Forget the 386i/150.  (n.b., discussion limited to 386i's,
no comments on 4's or other boxes, please.)


Rob
-- 
Rob Peglar	Comtrol Corp.	2675 Patton Rd., St. Paul MN 55113
		A Control Systems Company	(800) 926-6876

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