[geeks] Daily Dose of Unix

[Jochen Kunz]

On 2003.01.30 20:13 Chris Byrne wrote:

> I know Solaris the best of any commercial UNIX. I know Ultra 60's
> pretty well, and for equivalent power level the U60 is going to be
> cheaper, and easier to find.
Really? Is e.g. a reasonibe graphics for U60 really cheaper than for an
Octane? (I don't look for Suns and I am in Germany, so the prices here
are somewhat different.) Last time I was on the workstation market
(around 15 mounths ago) Suns where the expensivest systems on ebay.de
only because they where Suns.

> I've had an Ultra60 before and I know I like them
Time to get somthing different.

> 1. I want to know Irix better, and what better way than to have one at
> home
> 2. I've never owned an octane(I've had a couple of O2's) and I really
> want one
> 3. I've been working with Solaris for a long itme, and I'll be using
> it very day at work, so something different may be in order
These are three excelent reasons for an Octane.
And, since I got my new Indigo2 R10k, I am on the SGI trip again. I
could run my head against the wall because I missed an Octane R12k 270
MHz ESI for only 412,-EUR on Monday. I am afraid that I can't resist to
by that O2 tomorow... I want an "Erwin". ;-)

> The only major catch on the Octane is the price,
Depends on your needs. A dual R12k would be expensive. But R10k Octanes
are getting really cheap. Even here in good old Germany.

> and the price of Irix.
Pay someone on the list for copying his media and ship them to you?

> If I'm gonna get an Octance I want dual with MXE, and they're still a
> bit on the high side, plus Irix media aint cheap.
Do you really need MXE? Wouldn't SI/SE + TRAM be enough? Do you really
use all that 3D power?

> Oh and binary availability is quite a bit lower than with Solaris, but
> that's not too big a deal.
My concern would be more what it takes to get a compiler besides gcc.
gcc is knowen to produce slow code on RISC machines. I see it on my
Alphas, GCC <=> DEC CC... I heared that some GCC code is only about half
as fast than the same source compiled with MIPS Pro. Maybe this changed
with GCC 3.x but...
--



tsch|_,
         Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/