[rescue] SunBlade 2000 vs SunBlade 2500 vs Ultra 45

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Jonathan Patschke wrote:
>> Without a way to get into POWER for under $2K you can forget about it
>> ever being a major force in the industry.
> 
> Not everyone wants to buy cheap crap, and that's exactly what any SPARC
> system under $5000 is.
> 
> IBM's business model revolves around:
>   1) Always answering "yes" to "holy $#!+, it costs THAT MUCH?"
>   2) Building huge brute-force equipment that generally Does Not Quit.

Indeed.  IBM machinery has always been the most stable, in my experience.

> (With the exception of the xSeries platform sorely noted)

The xSeries stuff is hit-or-miss.  If you head to the lower-priced 
stuff, it'll fall apart on you, unfortunately, but if you drop a good 
amount of money on it, you can get a machine that has similar 
architecture and construction to p/i machines.

>> Niche is OK, just don't try to tell me that niche matters...
> 
> Tell that to IBM's balance sheet and anyone who relies on a bulletproof
> mainframe[0] or a PPC research cluster.  The finance industry heavily
> relies on IBM equipment, and, as recently as 2005, most of the mechanical
> CAD in the automotive industry happened on AIX workstations.

Many people don't realize how much batch processing still goes on.  Ever 
used an ATM?  Checked out at a national retail chain?  Booked an airline 
ticket?

> [0] Not POWER, or, at least not until ECLipz, but not a "major force" by
>     your definition, either.

Even ECLipz is just "kinda" POWER.

Peace...  Sridhar