Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 10:32:18 -0600 (MDT) From: Atipa <freebsd@atipa.com> To: Ada T Lim <ada@not-enough.bandwidth.org> Cc: "Jamil J. Weatherbee" <jamil@counterintelligence.ml.org>, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Alpha Benchmarks was: Re: FreeBSD --- ALPHA Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.970813095831.17775A-100000@dot.ishiboo.com> In-Reply-To: <199708130841.SAA13894@polya.blah.org>
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On Wed, 13 Aug 1997, Ada T Lim wrote: > > I was looking at alpha motherboards / systems tonight when I noted that > > there are actually two different versions of the 500MHz 21164, an NT > > (&linux) version and a UNIX (DEC UNIX). Apparently the UNIX version is > > different and more expensive but will run NT also (the reverse is not > > true). So what processor will freebsd-alpha run on, and Is the UNIX > > version actually better or what? > > I believe this is a DEC marketing ploy - Digital Unix may test for the > different processor and fail on the cheap one, simply so they can subsidise > the cost of Digital Unix without making it look _too_ expensive. Not true. They are noticably different. The benchmarks show: +--------------+------------+-----------+ | 533MHz | SPECint95 | SPECfp95 | +--------------|------------|-----------| | 21164 (LX) | 16.4 | 22.5 | +--------------|------------|-----------| | 21164PC (SX) | 14.0 | 17.0 | +--------------|------------|-----------| | 300MHz P-II | 11.6 | 7.2 | (Intel's closest to referece) +--------------+------------+-----------+ Max programmable bus speed for the 21164 is 200MHz, and the highest for the 21164PC is 133MHz. NT (Linux/OpenBSD/NetBSD???) requires the "Windows NT Alpha BIOS Firmware" on the motherboard. You can get the BIOS on either the SX or LX motherboard. Both of these are tons faster than a 300MHz Pentium II. Our latest DEC catalog says to look for the next generation of Alpha to use a 0.25 micron CMOS process, with SPECint95 over 30, and SPECfp95 over 50, and 2GB/sec memory bandwidth. That's over 700% faster floating point than a 300MHz Pentium II! Can't wait for FreeBSD to support it... Kevin
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