Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:3947 comp.unix.bsd:12352 comp.os.linux:51569 comp.unix.questions:37411 comp.os.mach:3125 comp.unix.solaris:5277 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!usenet.coe.montana.edu!osyjm From: osyjm@cs.montana.edu (Jaye Mathisen) Newsgroups: comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.linux,comp.unix.questions,comp.os.mach,comp.unix.solaris Subject: Re: Unix close for 486 - commens requested Date: 5 Aug 1993 20:44:24 GMT Organization: Computer Science, MSU, Bozeman MT, 59717 Lines: 52 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <23rrf8$nrl@pdq.coe.montana.edu> References: <CEH.93Aug5102012@alouette.sce.carleton.ca> <23r8kl$la4@pdq.coe.montana.edu> <CBAs9D.MH4@murdoch.acc.virginia.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: pdq.coe.montana.edu In article <CBAs9D.MH4@murdoch.acc.virginia.edu>, Jon Gefaell <jeg7e@livia.acs.Virginia.EDU> wrote: >In article <23r8kl$la4@pdq.coe.montana.edu> nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu (Nate Williams) writes: >> >My disagreements with this article are legion. > >1.) Last I was quoted, by Rob Kolstad (@bsdi.com) full source license >to BSDI's product is ~$1K NOT $2K Bzzt. License for *1* machine is 1k. University license w/source, and unlimited binary run-time license, with a single source of support is 2k. the $1k only lets you run it on 1 machine, additional RTL's are something like $200 a pop, which would put him over the 2k figure anyway. (these numbers from the last price sheet ftp'd from bsdi.com). > >2.) You don't need accelerated video, 32M RAM, EISA, etc etc ad nauseum > for what you've asked for. It's nice to have more and faster, but a > lot less will produce very nicely for you. Especialy I have to wonder > about the display recomendation given the stated application is for > BATCH simulations. Well, there's a bit of a disagreement here. If the machines are only batch, and there's no possiblity that they won't/can't be used for X terminals or such, then you're right. But *if* you're going to buy all those machines, and you have the opportunity to use them for computse servers, and X, then accelerated video is the way to go. As to EISA vs ISA, it depends. If your simulation is so big that you need more memory, then EISA is a better choice if you opt to run one of the free unices, because of the 24bit addressing problem with the Adaptec in an ISA box. The problem doesn't exist in the EISA box with a EISA controller. EISA boxes aren't that much more than ISA now days anyway. I don't recall offhand if BSDI implements bouncebuffers for the 154x series to support more than 16MB's of RAM on the ISA. If the stuff is I/O intensive and reads and writes a lot of data, there's no comparison between ISA and EISA, the EISA box blows it away. If this guy gets stuck with 1 "server" machine to store the disk, and minimal hardware on the other 9, then making the server EISA is a wise choice. I've done some fairly extensive testing with the free unices (not Linux however), and BSDI, and there is no comparison between IDE and good SCSI, the SCSI blows it away. Anyway, my 2 bits. -- Jaye Mathisen, COE Systems Manager (406) 994-4780 410 Roberts Hall,Dept. of Computer Science Montana State University,Bozeman MT 59717 osyjm@cs.montana.edu