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Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 08:13:09 -0700
From: vanmaren@fast.cs.utah.edu (Kevin Van Maren)
Message-Id: <199711101513.IAA21564@fast.cs.utah.edu>
To: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Best processor?
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My 2 cents here.

We went from a Pentium Pro/200 w/512k to a Pentium II/266 and it
significantly faster (uniprocessor).  (Before LX chipset was out)

Price estimates (non-binding ;-)
A Pentium Pro/200 w/512k is ~ $1100
A Pentium II/300 w/512k is ~ $800
A Pentium Pro/200 w/256k is ~ $500
A Pentium II/266 w/512k is ~ $550

For the price and options available, I'd go with the Pentium II,
unless you really need features of the Pentium Pro (like 4-way SMP).
But Intel is killing the Pro, except for 1MB chips for big servers.
(That is only until Slot 2 is out).

The L2 cache is slower, which may cause problems.  But the processors
only communicate at 66MHz anyway, so running the cache at twice the
external bus isn't too bad.  Yes, performance will suffer when the 
working set is > L1 and < L2 relative to the Pro.  But a Pentium II/300
has a 150MHz L2 cache -- not much slower than the 200Mhz on the Pentium
Pro/200 (okay, the Pentium Pro/166).

BTW, intel is planning on selling the Pentium II w/o a L2 cache.
With AGP, SDRAM, USB, MMX, blah, blah, blah, who cares about the
actual *performance* -- you have all the buzzwords.

Slot 2 (II?) will have a full-speed L2 Cache and support 4-way smp.
It will be targeted at server-only marker.

Kevin