*BSD News Article 58298


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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