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Grex > Coop9 > #29: Sun 4/600 MP: Should wee get it? |  |
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dang
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Sun 4/600 MP: Should wee get it?
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Dec 22 21:48 UTC 1996 |
Well, we have this amazing possibility of skiping a whole hardware upgrade
and getting a Sun 4/600MP machine. Personally, I think this is a good idea.
Any hardware upgrade we can make that would significantly increase the
performance of Grex is a major plus, as far as I'm concerned. However,
questions have been raised in agora over this, so I'll quote as many of them
as I can here. The first objection raised was that a fundraiser was started
for this with no discussion. In general, that the board was acting without
the users knowledge. Questions were raised regarding the previous use and
current condition of the computer in question, the repubility of the dealer,
the warantee situation and how to get the computer worked on, reliablility
of the computer and the os, and others that I can't think of right now.
(Sorry) So, this is the Sun 4/600MP discussion item. Should we go for it?
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| 4 responses total. |
dang
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response 1 of 4:
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Dec 22 21:54 UTC 1996 |
Several of the questions raised were answered. The dealer is reputable, and
we would likely have gotten the Sun 4/400 that was authorized from the same
dealer anyway. The OS is the same one we are using now, or one version newer,
and so will be stable. The rest of the questions are still open.
Now, as to my opinion. First off, I don't think the board or staff did
anything wrong here. No action was taken (the board authorized the Sun 4/400
in spine of the possibility of getting the 4/600MP) until the question of
whether or not we could afford it was answered. Now that we know we can
afford it, we have to ask if we should get it. I feel we should. This would
be a dramatic improvement in hardware speed for Grex, and I'm in favor of
improvements in speed. This would save us money, because we would have made
this upgrade eventually, and would have bought the Sun 4/400 and all it's
memory too. It removes the need of a hardware upgrade for longer than the
4/400 would have. The 4/600MP has several advantages, not the least of which
is that it uses standard 30 pin SIMMs. I'm all for this upgrade, and only
wish I could donate more money to it.
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ajax
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response 2 of 4:
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Dec 22 23:01 UTC 1996 |
I answered several questions in Agora item 5, about why the
rush, what it comes with, and warranty/hardware/software issues.
I'll add that this wasn't planned much in advance...it's a machine
that recently came on the market, and getting a good deal requires
moving fairly quickly. Also, there was e-mail and live discussion
amongst staff about several details. It would be good to discuss
that stuff in the garage conference, but some of the staffers who
know the most about this stuff don't check there nearly as often
as they check their e-mail, so again, timing was an issue.
Thanks for entering this Dan...as you mentioned, the board
hasn't made a final authorization of this, so it's definitely
still open to discussion.
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steve
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response 3 of 4:
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Dec 23 02:25 UTC 1996 |
We *absolutely* do want to get this unit if we can.
Grex will save money, and be on a *MUCH* faster processor. MUch
Faster. This series, the 600, is the highest end MV chassis units
Sun ever made.
Considering that Grex was thinking of spending $1000 - $1100 for a
Sun-4/400 CPU card and 128K card, spending $750 for a processor thats
likely to be 3 - 5 times faster yet again is a good deal.
Precise measurments on the speed of the 600 is rather difficult yo
make, becuase it has things like extra "hardware contexts" that allow
the Sun to keep track of all the processes running in a efficient manner.
Our current 4/260 card has eithr 8 or 16 hardware contexts; the 600
series has a really high number, like 4096.
The 600 series was designed as a fileserver, more than any other
series of VME stuff. Grex does all the things that a file server does.
It's a great match.
Grex should be on such a machine. We've never had something like
this, simply becuase of the fact that it was too much money, even a
few years ago. But, since the march of technology roars along at its
usual frantic pace, we're now able to get things that were litterally
$40,000 three or four years ago.
People haven't heard me "preach" about 600 series Sun stuff simply
becuase I'd always thought it was too expensive for us to deal with.
At some point I thought it would change, but I had no idea it would
happen in 1997!
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dang
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response 4 of 4:
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Dec 23 03:08 UTC 1996 |
I linked the discussion from agora item 5 here, so I'm freezing this item.
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