[rescue] ss2 under load

Brian Hechinger wonko at arkham.ws
Thu Feb 14 21:37:59 CST 2002


On Thu, Feb 14, 2002 at 03:07:49PM -0500, Dave McGuire wrote:
> 
>   OH yes.  It's not that SPARCs are particularly good at this, it's that
> x86 machines are particularly BAD at this.  A VAX is the epitome of
> graceful load handling.  Take a lowly MicroVAX-II for example.  You
> log into it, start working on something, and it's usable, if somewhat
> slow.  But it feels about the same if you're on it alone or if you're
> on it with fifteen other people.

Penn State, circa 1990, VAX 11/750 running BSD, load average of between 100 and
150 depending on what part of the day it was.  it worked just as well then as
when the load average was 2.  seriously.  slow, but consistantly slow.

-brian



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