Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!usenet!argus!taro
From: taro@argus.CS.ORST.EDU (Hondori Taro)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: obsolete Sequent software
Message-ID: <1991Mar02.012726.8438@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 2 Mar 91 01:27:26 GMT
References: <124108@uunet.UU.NET> <1991Mar01.163348.24172@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> <1469@west.West.Sun.COM>
Sender: taro@MATH.ORST.EDU (Hondori Taro)
Reply-To: taro@MATH.ORST.EDU (Hondori Taro)
Organization: Oregon State University -- Math Department
Lines: 55
Nntp-Posting-Host: math.orst.edu

In article <1469@west.West.Sun.COM> Martin.Baines@UK.Sun.Com writes:
>In article <1991Mar01.163348.24172@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>,
>johnm@mist.CS.ORST.EDU (John Matzka) writes:
>
>|> I would be interested to see you put 500+ simultaneous users on a
>dozen suns.
>
>I really couldn't resist this one: 500 users on a dozen Suns =
>500/12 Users per system =
>41.67 users per system.
>
>Let's call it 50 users per system to be fair :-)
>
>Each SS400 = 22 MIPS   =>   0.44 MIPS/user
>Say the Sequent had 30 processors rated at 5 MIPS each
>i.e. 30*5  = 150 MIPS  =>   0.3  MIPS/user

It is not fair to compare the old symmetry with new Suns.
As long as you are using the latest numbers for the Suns you should
likewise use the latest numbers for Sequent.  Here it is.

Each SS400 = 22 MIPS   =>   0.44 MIPS/user
Say the Sequent had 30 486 processors rated at 14 MIPS each 
i.e. 30*14  = 420 MIPS =>   0.84 MIPS/user

>So it look's like the dozen Suns would give you *more* power per user
>than a single Sequent.

So it looks like the more power theory is out.  Besides that, MIPS is not
the only thing users need.  Are you going to duplicate the disks
on 12 suns or have a file server and use NFS through the network?
administer 12 suns vs 1 machine?  Waste memory, swap, CPU
and other resources for 12 OSs vs one.

Also there are things other than users which use the machines.
Most sequents are used for applications, datebases and services server.  It
would be hard to split a large service like news across 12 Suns,
or spread your database across 12 suns and so on.

Basicaly what it comes down to is that you can't compare Suns and Sequents,
they are designed and made for different purposes.

To be fair, I do like Suns and I use them every day, in fact
I am using one now.  

>For the typical s/w dev. load a SPARCsystem 400 would eat this load
>level for breakfast.

Most computers these days are used for more than just s/w dev, the computers
are mostly for people who use them not the software engineers. I would rather
have a reliable system (as old as it maybe) than a system which has lots
of new things only used by the s/w engineer.

>Needless to say these are my views not Sun's...
Needless to say these are my views not OSU's...