[geeks] Re: HP's squandering

[Gavin Hubbard]

<<
and these 9000's are built like tanks.

The arch of the V is so nice... and you can tie 4 of them together via 
gate arrays. They are the precursor to the beautiful Superdome 
machines.

Andrew
>>

>From an architectural point of view, the V-class systems are pretty interesting - especially that impressive non-blocking Exemplar switching backplane that they used (an awful lot of ASICs :-). 

However HP didn't actually design the V-class architecture - they bought a company (whose name I've forgotten) to get the design. This is why the V-class doesn't really fit neatly into the HP 9000 range, they only ever saw it as a bridge between the T-class and Superdome.

>From a performance point of view they aren't that great anymore. A single well-configured N-class will blow even a V2500/V2600 out of the water using 1/4 of the processors, ~1/30 of the chassis size, and a lot less electrical power. Though the V-class can be extended using SCA or Hyperplex i.e. a single Unix image over multiple V-class systems.

However the N-class can't compare to the sound of a V-class booting up. It sounds a bit like a jet taking off. We-re talking a floor rattling system.

Regards,

Gavin