Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!boulder!pikes!mercury.cair.du.edu!isis!onecom!spatial!gad From: gad@spatial.com (Gordon A. Durand) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Personal IRIS Summary: Forget IBM, go with SGI Keywords: price personal IRIS Message-ID: <1990Aug01.170559.623@spatial.com> Date: 1 Aug 90 17:05:59 GMT References: <850@earth.cs.utexas.edu> <7009@helios.TAMU.EDU> Reply-To: gad@spatial.COM (Gordon A. Durand) Organization: Spatial Technology Inc, Boulder, CO Lines: 38 In article <7009@helios.TAMU.EDU> gordon@cs.tamu.edu (Dan Gordon) writes: >The IBM RISC-based 6000 workstations apparently have the same >graphics engines as the SGI. However, their processors seem to >be much faster (according to figures provided by IBM). Does >anybody have any data that compares these machines with the >various Silicon Graphics workstations? No hard data here, just some opinions formed after trying to use both machines. Anyway, we have a couple of Personal Iris workstations (a 4D20 and a 4D25) and are pretty happy with them. We see some occasional NFS weirdness, but they are a fairly solid platform. The processor is pretty fast and SGI's GL graphics library screams. Unfortunately, the SGI version of X is fairly slow (but getting better). -- FLAME ON -- We recently got two RS/6000s and I think they are pretty much a waste of good electricity. Our local IBM guy has been trying for nearly a month to get one of the machines to work on our ethernet. Still no luck. Also, don't get tricked into believing that AIX is Unix, it's "Unix like". We have been experiencing a lot of grief trying to port C++ to the IBM because of IBM's peculiar variations of the C compiler and linker. The RS/6000 also seems to be rather unstable, we see far too many mysterious system hangs. On the plus side, the machine is generally very fast, although their X is nothing special (my HP9000/375 runs X much faster). My overall impression is that this machine is at about an "alpha state". Perhaps IBM got in too much of a hurry to get to market and thought they could get away with shipping junk. Isn't it nice to know that even the giants screw up :-). -- FLAME OFF -- As always, these are my opinions. For all I know, my employer thinks that the RS/6000 is wonderful. -- ---- Gordon Durand gad@spatial.com Spatial Technology Inc. {ncar,boulder,ico}!spatial!gad 5710 Flatiron Pkwy, Boulder, CO 80301