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From: mstary@prairienet.org (stary)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.aix
Subject: ISP hardware/software choices (performance comparison)
Date: 6 Jan 1996 21:15:42 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
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Hi,
I have a dilemma about the hardware that I should use for my ISP/WWW
site (www, ftp, ppp/slip, news, pop....). After some research and
after reading the Inet-access FAQ a couple of times, I get very
contradicting evidence on what h/w I should use. I have considered and
analyzed three different platforms (from a raw CPU performance point of
view):
(1) Sun-SunOS, Solaris,
(2) IBM PPCs - AIX, Solaris ppc
(3) Pentium P5/P6 - BSD (I, net), x86 Solaris
After looking at all the respective price/performance ratios I
concluded that the only efficient way to go is with the P6-based
machines. I would like to go with Sun and SunOS or Solaris, but these
machines are the worst in price/performace ratios ($/perf.). These
$/perf. ratios for the Intel based machines are MUCH better than that
for the PPC or Sun platforms. I do not like any company that has close
ties with Microsoft, but from a business point of view, I can not
ignore them any longer. The reason for this post is that IÕm much
confused by this issue. Many people prefer Sparcs (maybe I would as
well), but business decision should be based more than on a personal
preference alone. Please read what I did, fell free to make comments,
and if you can or are willing to, answer my questions below.
Any ideas are welcomed....thank you for your time, Martin Stary
----------------------------------
Method: I have compared the three different platforms on price using
specific manufactureÕs system prices, and performance using several
SPEC benchmarks. I know that the SPEC benchmarks are not truly
indicative of the overall system performance, but from some of my
experience the CPU benchmarks do correlate with the performance of the
machine as a whole. For pricing, I have used several machines in each
platform group configured in a similar way. There are some
discrepancies in the configurations, but these will most likely not
amount to significant price differences. For the Intel based systems,
the price is somewhat higher than they really are, and for the PPC and
Sparc based systems the prices are representative or lower than they
should be (even this does not help the Sparcs and PPCs).
Conclusions: I can not justify to buy any other platform other then
the Intel P6/200 based machines. The $/perf. ratios (look below) for
the P6/200s are in many instances twice as good as the next viable
platform (Sparc-based). The P6/200 boxes seem to have a HUGE advantage
in $/perf. If this advantage was only 20-30% different then I could
overlook the P6, but not when the machines (P6) seem to have twice (in
many instance way more than twice) the horsepower per $. The
UltraSparcs seem to have better $/perf. ratios compared to the older
Super/Hyper Sun models, but not anywhere near the P6/200 machines.
Since SunOS is not supported by the new UltraSparcs, then I may as well
run Solaris on a P6/200 significantly cheaper.
Questions:
(1) Am I correct for the most part, or am I making some fatal mistakes?
If IÕm making mistakes, where are they and how can I correct them?
(2) What would be a better measure of overall ISP/WWW server
performance then those used here? There is the measure of tpm
(transaction per minute, or something similar), but I can not seem to
find this data for these specific machines.
Data:
I found a ŌSpectableÕ somewhere on the net, but I do not remember
where. I hope that IÕm not infringing on the original authorÕs rights.
All of the systems are configured with 64Megs of RAM, 4.3 gig Hds, some
graphics card (not very important for servers), and no monitors.
Here are the data that IÕm deriving my conclusions from:
-----------------------------------------
SPECint_base95, SPECfp_base95
-----------------------------------------
Machine, CPU, clock, cache, SPECint_base95, SPECfp_base95, price
Sun SS10/40 SuprSP 40 20/16 1.00 1.00 ???
IBM C20 MPC604 120 1M+16/16 3.38 3.48
$12300
Intel XXpress Pentium 66/133 1M+8/8 4.14 3.12
~$6000
Intel Alder PentiumPro 150 256+8/8 6.08 5.42
~$6700
Intel Alder PentiumPro 200 256+8/8 8.09 6.70 ~$7200
Sun SS20/71 SuprSP2 75 1M+20/16 2.06 2.14
$10400
$/perf. ratios for the above:
CPU $/int_base95 $/fp_base95
--------------------------------------------
MPC604 $ 3,639.05 $ 3,534.48
P5/133 $ 1,449.28 $ 1,923.08
P6/150 $ 1,101.97 $ 1,236.16
P6/200 $ 889.99 $ 1,074.63
SuprSP2/71 $ 5,048.54 $ 4,859.81
========================
SPECint92, SPECfp92
-----------------------------------------
Machine, CPU, clock, cache, SPECint92, SPECfp92, price
DEC VAX11/780 VAX 5 2 1.0 1.0 ????
IBM C20 MPC604 120 1M+16/16 155.0 150.2
$12300
Sun SS5/110 MicroSP2 110 16/8 78.6 65.3 $8800
Sun SS20/50 SuprSP 50 20/16 76.9 80.1 $7700
Sun SS20/61 SuprSP 50/60 1M+20/16 98.2 107.2 $9300
Sun SS20/71 SuprSP2 50/75 1M+20/16 125.8 121.2
$10400
Sun SS20/612 2xSuprSP 50/60 1M+20/16 ? 127.1
$12100
Sun Ultra1/140 UltraSP 71/143 512+16/16 215 303 ~$14000
Sun Ultra1/170 UltraSP 83/167 512+16/16 252 351 ~$15000
Intel Xpress Pentium 66/133 512+8/8 147.5 109.6
~$6000
Intel Alder PentiumPro 150 256+8/8 276.3 220.0
~$6700
Intel Alder PentiumPro 200 256+8/8 366.0 283.2
~$7200
$/perf. ratios for the above:
CPU $/SPECint92 $/SPECfp92
--------------------------------------------
MPC604/120 $79.35 $81.89
MicrSP2/110 $111.96 $134.76
SuprSP/50 $100.13 $96.13
SuprSP/61 $94.70 $86.75
SuprSP2/75 $82.67 $85.81
2SuprSP2/60 ??? $95.20
UtlraSP/143 $65.12 $46.20
UltraSP/167 $59.52 $42.74
P5/133 $40.68 $54.74
P6/150 $24.25 $30.45
P6/200 $19.67 $25.42
========================
Integer/FP SPECrate92
-----------------------------------------
Notes:
- Integer SPECrate is derived from the results of a set of
integer
benchmarks run multiple times simultaneously, and can be used
to estimate a machine's overall multi-tasking throughput for
integer code. It is typically used on MP machines.
- Floating-Point SPECrate is derived from the results of a set
of floating-point benchmarks run multiple times
simultaneously,
and can be used to estimate a machine's overall multi-tasking
throughput for FP code. It is typically used on MP machines.
- Computed specrates are indicated by "c". They're computed
from
SPECint92, SPECfp92 (for uniprocessors) using a scaling
factor.
This number is usually slightly less than or equal to a
measured
specrate on a uniprocessor. The scaling factor is the number
of
seconds in a week, divided by the time of the longest-running
benchmark on the reference SPEC VAX 11/780, which is
604800/25500,
or about 23.7.
IBM C20 MPC604 120 1M+16/16 3676c 3562c
$12300
Sun SS5/110 MicroSP2 110 16/8 1864c 1549c
$8800
Sun SS20/61 SuprSP 50/60 1M+20/16 2092 2418 $9300
Sun SS20/502 2xSuprSP 50 20/16 3218 3193 $8400
Sun SS20/612 2xSuprSP 50/60 1M+20/16 4492 4888
$12100
Sun SS20/712 2xSuprSP2 50/75 1M+20/16 5726 5439
$14500
Sun SS20/HS14 4xHyperSP 50/100 256+8/0 8124 8906
$19500
Sun Ultra1/140 UltraSP 71/143 512+16/16 5107 7175
$14000
Sun Ultra1/170 UltraSP 83/167 512+16/16 5982 8323
$15000
Intel Xpress Pentium 66/133 512+8/8 3498c 2599c
$6000
Intel Alder PentiumPro 150 256+8/8 6553c 5218c
$6700
Intel Alder PentiumPro 200 256+8/8 8681c 6717c
$7200
$/perf. ratios for the above:
CPU $/Integer/FP $/SPECrate92
--------------------------------------------
MPC604/120 $3.346 $3.453
MicrSP2/110 $4.721 $5.681
SuprSP/61 $4.446 $3.846
2SuprSP/50 $2.610 $2.631
2SuprSP/612 $2.694 $2.475
SuprSP2/712 $2.532 $2.666
4HyprSP/100 $2.400 $2.190
UtlraSP/143 $2.741 $1.951
UltraSP/167 $2.508 $1.802
P5/133 $1.715 $2.309
P6/150 $1.022 $1.284
P6/200 $0.829 $1.072