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From: rick@seismo.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: brash micros versus the Big Iron: not yet
Message-ID: <44083@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV>
Date: Wed, 2-Sep-87 12:54:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: beno.44083
Posted: Wed Sep  2 12:54:09 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Sep-87 06:15:31 EDT
References: <622@winchester.UUCP> <12953@amdahl.amdahl.com> <630@winchester.UUCP> <13439@amdahl.amdahl.com>
Organization: Center for Seismic Studies, Arlington, VA
Lines: 19
Summary: IO

Well, to start with I've got a Vax 11/780 with 7 6250 bpi 125 ips
tape drives on it. It performs adequately when they are all running.
I STILL haven't foudn anything to replace it with for a reasonable amount
of money. Nothing in the Sun price range can handle that I/O volume.

The Sun 3/160 can't even handle ONE streamer tape adequately in my opinion
and the 3/260 is only a little better.  (Maybe if they bother to supply a
real VME board instead of the joke multibus boards with adaptor that they are
trying to pass off as VME boards). Disk I/O is not great either.

Also, because of the limited number of contexts the sun can keep, the Vax
will often win if there are many processes active.

Sun (and most others) have been concentrating on raw CPU speed and
ignoring total system throughput. This is tolerable if you are
buliding single user workstations, but unacceptable if you are
looking at multiple users.

-le.t I