Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!mbkennel
From: mbkennel@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Matthew B. Kennel)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.sys.misc
Subject: Re: Criteria for comparing RISC processors
Message-ID: <8142@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 4 May 89 19:40:20 GMT
References: <2368@ogccse.ogc.edu> <1464@cfa.cfa.harvard.EDU> <141@dg.dg.com> <18120@winchester.mips.COM> <144@dg.dg.com> <18316@winchester.mips.COM> <147@dg.dg.com> <18645@mips.mips.COM> <154@dg.dg.com>
Reply-To: mbkennel@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Matthew B. Kennel)
Followup-To: comp.sys.misc
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
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This should really be in e-mail, but it's bounced back faster than a superball.

  I'm thinking of getting a workstation, primarily for scientific
computation. I was thinking originally of the NeXT machine, but it seems
like there are better things coming out, especially for hard-core floating
point performance.  Right now for my thesis, I've been spoiled by using a
Personal Iris workstation, which for my application, is twice as fast as a
VAX 8700, and slightly faster than a Convex C120, even when fully
vectorized.  

The Iris is out of my price range ($20K+), but I really don't need
all the fancy color graphics.  What I want is something like a 
NeXT:
  
  monochrome screen, medium-sized disk (~100 MB), and appropriate amount
of memory(8 mb I guess).  

How does floating point compare to a DEC 3100?  Price?  I'm probably going
to have to go for the lowest end machine.

For the vendors:

	What would be the price on a DG workstation as described above, with
and without educational discount?  What kind of system software does it come
with?  Is it BSD or SYSV based?  (which is it _really_?) Is X windows
included?  (i.e. a working, compatible server) How close is the OS to common
"industry standards"?  Is it possible for individuals to purchase, or can it
only work through a department/purchasing officer?  Can one get third-party
memory or disk drives, e.g. do Macintosh RAM modules and SCSI drives work
with it?

For the users who have one:

	What's it like?  Does it work as advertised?  How much did
you really have to pay?
	
Much thanks,
Matt Kennel

mbkennel@phoenix.princeton.edu