[rescue] RE: SGI vs. Sun

[Joshua Boyd]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2005 at 11:36:23AM -0800, Sheldon T. Hall wrote:

> However, in doing all these comparisons, I think one ought to take into
> account the era, as well as the cost of the machine.  Things were changing
> fast in the middle 90s, when the I^2 was built.  I think the SPARCclassic
> was still in production at the same time as the SGI I^2, but the I^2 was a
> later design, and cost 2 or 3 times as much as a SPARCclassic.

The I2 came out in '93, which I think the same year the classic came
out.

However, didn't the I2 start at $30-40k, while the classic started at
$5k?

A ss20 is probably a fairer comparison machine, since it started out in
the high $20ks I believe, and probably cost more than a comparible I2
once you added the ZX board.
 
> I've got a 1997 spec sheet for an SGI Challenge XL, with prices, at
> http://tandem.artell.net:8080/software/Challenge_XL_BenchMark.pdf, if you
> want to see what $2,875,275.20 bought back then.  I don't see 100BaseT on
> the options list.