Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 10:50:45 -0700 From: "Charles Burns" <burnscharlesn@hotmail.com> To: hawk@fac13.ds.psu.edu Cc: vince@oahu.WURLDLINK.NET, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: the AMD factor in FreeBSD Message-ID: <F240ILJKqwYBjadtQpQ00006ee7@hotmail.com>
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> > If you are going for price/performance Sun and IBM aren't really in that > > market. They go more for the super ultra reliable extremely scalable >systems > > it seems. > >And that's where it bit :) dual processors isn't scaling very far :) > > > You may look into Alpha if you are after absolute max raw > > computing power for the buck. At certain price levels, Alpha (at least >did) > > win hands down. The systems are made by Compaq, but their high-end >systems > > don't suck like their consumer systems do. > >We're looking at about $5,000 (for my desk). Alpha doesn't really show >up at that level :) Maybe at the $15,000; I didn't check--but I doubt >we would get a dual processor, and, power aside, I need two to talk to >one anotehr for my research before sending it up to the beowolfs and >SP2's. (I'm pushing hard enough at the edges of the complier that >bringing down a system isn't out of the question.). A few years ago I saw some Alpha clone systems (using real Alpha processors) that were under $3,000. Compaq's site suspiciously refuses to give out any prices, but you might contact some of these North American distributers: Avnet AJ Denardo 480-643-5712 or 800-662-8638, Pioneer/Keylink Lauren Clemmer 440-498-6718, Wyle Donna Marie Martin 800-318-9953, Total Tec Bob Callaghan 732-906-0683 x221 Ask about the Alphastation DS10/XP900, DS20E, XP1000 and ES40 workstations. All of these sould work with FreeBSD, but the ES40 (which can have 4 processors) may work best with something that is more optimized for SMP like Tru64. This probably won't be an issue because I doubt that it will be available for said price range. FreeBSD version 5 probably won't be out for quite a while. :-/ > > If you would like to build your own array from scratch, Seagate makes a > > 160GB Ultra/160 SCSI drive. Those should do it. :-) > >Yikes. I don't want to think of the price on those . . . You can get >the 73's for about $900, whcih means we can have a parity and a >standby. $2170 retail, but you can find them for the low-low price of $1620 on Pricewatch. Being SCSI, they are of course compatible with FreeBSD with a compatible controller. > > Don't bet the farm that AMD will have SMB boards by then. Chances are >that > > they will, but their roadmap, IIRC, says "2nd half" which just begins in > > June. You may also want to consider that the boards will be >first-generation > > SMP. While they will almost certainly be far, far (FAR) better than the > > average 1st gen board because it is using a chipset that is perfectly >good > > for single processor systems and because the boards are likely being > > marketed as server/workstation class (hence the predicted $600+ price >tag), > >We're assuming that range. But the current AMD boards only have 3 >memory slots (or less), meaning a 512mb module (still about $800 for >266 ddr). Replacing that with a pair of 256's will pretty much pay for >the more expensive board and the second processor . . . also means we >can drop the pci u160 controllers. The dual CPU Tyan board will probably have an integrated SCSI controller. Most server boards do these days, but I don't know this for sure. They are almost always FreeBSD compatible Adaptec controllers on the mobo. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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