[rescue] Movin' on up (long)

[James Lockwood]

On Mon, 22 Apr 2002, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:

> To fix this, I'm toying with the idea of selling every system I have and
> consolidating into something that might do what I need.  That is: lots of
> disc, basic audio, multiple SCSI buses, FastEthernet, multiple CPUs, and a
> decent GUI console w/ excellent 2D performance[2] and so-so 3D
> performance. Primarily what I do:

If I had to fork your requirements onto multiple physical machines, I
would separate disk/SCSI busses from your main interactive workstation.
As long as fast ethernet is not a bottleneck, I've found a well equipped
NFS server to actually decrease client CPU load over having local disks.

It sounds to me like multiple CPUs are what you are craving here (system
responsiveness).

>   1) A Sun E3000.  Sounds great, but I can't verify that it has UPA for a
>      decent framebuffer.  Bill also warns me that parts are scarce, as
>      they're not interchangeable with the rest of the Exx00 family.

You can get just about anything with the right boards.  Interchangability
is decent, not really better or worse than the rest of the family.  These
things are pricy though.

>   2) A Sun E450.  Dual UPA, quad CPUs, lots of PCI64, and plenty of space
>      for memory and internal disc.  Not nearly as expen$ive as the E3000,
>      either.  However, it's still a current model, so replacement parts
>      could be prohibitively expensive should anything go wrong.

They are highly integrated.  This is both an advantage (fewer parts to
fail) and a disadvantage (replace the whole mainboard if something goes
kaput).  Thankfully, they very rarely go kaput.  Tons of internal disk
space and I/O, relatively cheap/easy to get CPUs.

>   3) A homegrown box based on a Sun axMP.  All the advantages of the
>      E450, but the disadvantages of having to hunt down a decent ATX case
>      (is there such?) and having to -find- an axMP on the used market.
>      Also, I can't confirm anywhere that there are UPA slots on the axMP,
>      and all the decent framebuffers require UPA.

No UPA slots.  6 usable PCI slots because 4 are covered by the piggyback
CPU board.  The AXmp is a bastard design (then again, so was the T1), I
can't recommend it unless you get a great deal on one.

> [2] If I can watch the pixels being painted on the screen in XEmacs or
>     Netscrape, it grates on my nerves.

You've never used a GT framebuffer.  After that, I can even tolerate an
Sbus cg3.  :)

Have you considered a smaller MP box, like a Sun Ultra 60?

-James