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From: jwp@utah-cs.UUCP (John W Peterson)
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: Re: Experience with HP9000/200
Message-ID: <3265@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Mar-85 18:31:48 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.3265
Posted: Thu Mar 28 18:31:48 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 31-Mar-85 03:13:23 EST
References: <1056@topaz.ARPA>
Organization: Univ of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 24


> From: Martin <GRISS%hplabs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa>

> ...Our typical configuration has about 5-7 Mb RAM, a 55Mb or 135Mb local
> disk, 2 or 3 displays (color and/or BW) and a network connection to a
> larger file-server, laser printer, etc.  These are effective as
> personal workstations for our work with LISP (mostly PSL), LISP-based
> screen editors, graphics and programming environments, expert systems
> and experimental natural language systems.

One thing not mentioned here is cost.  A configuration like that at
retail prices would probably cost roughly the same as a Symbolics 3600,
and the 3600 is still a nicer Lisp environment.  (Though word has it
HP is working on these details...).  

For things like typical Unix hacking, machines like Apollo or Sun are
probably more useful than the series 9000's, because they run "pure"
versions of Unix (4.2 on the Sun, *both* 4.2 and System V on the SR9
Apollo).  The higher end Apollos (460, 660, etc) appear to be Vax/780
speed for most numerical work, and much faster for certain applications
(e.g., compiling C programs).

There is one important point however, you can't ignore the reliability
of HP machines.  They don't break, and are VERY cheap to maintain.