*BSD News Article 58481


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From: curt@portal.ca (Curt Sampson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: ISP hardware/software choices (performance comparison)
Date: 8 Jan 1996 13:34:15 -0800
Organization: Internet Portal Services, Ltd.
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Distribution: inet
Message-ID: <4cs2kn$kfg@cynic.portal.ca>
References: <4cmopu$d35@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <4crnbe$8a@olympus.nwnet.net>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:1753 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:1884 comp.unix.solaris:55968 comp.unix.aix:67660

In article <4crnbe$8a@olympus.nwnet.net>, Anthony D'Atri <aad@nwnet.net> wrote:

>>Since SunOS is not supported by the new UltraSparcs
>
>Uh, yes it is.  What do you think they run?  MS-DOS?  OS/360?  CTSS?

Solaris. `SunOS' generally means `SunOS 4.x.x.' I've heard Solaris
called SunOS 5, but on the other hand, I've also heard Sparcstation
IPCs called Sun 4/20s.

>o You're throwing in framebuffers that are almost certainly not comparable.
>  ...The graphics hardware in Suns is generally a much different
>  beast from the price-point cheap stuff in an MS-DOS-market machine.  The
>  latter rarely can usably support a million pixels, and probably don't offer
>  the speed and acceleration that the Sun card probably does.

Rubbish. I have an old, cheap ($200) Mach32-based ATI PCI graphics
card that easily supports 1152x900x256, and looks as good on my
old Hitachi monitor as the exact same display from a Sun did on
it. X runs perfectly fine on it.

Acceleration is not that big a deal; X mostly wants a fast framebuffer
for day-to-day use, and a PCI card provides that. There are some
very fast and very expensive graphics cards available, and yes,
they may not be as good as Sun's top-of-the-line stuff. But for
those of us not doing real-time 3D modelling, there's no difference.

>  ...but if you're including a monitor with the Suns, then
>  that's another mistake.  MS-DOS machines seem to rarely be sold with decent
>  monitors.  I rarely see one as large as 17", and they're almost always
>  spherical, and almost always can't handle even close to 1M pixels without
>  flickering.  I don't think Sun sells anything smaller than 17" now, and I
>  believe that they only sell cylindrical Sonys doing at least 1152x900.
>  Again, this is a different beast from an MS-DOS monitor, so's it's gonna
>  cost more.  You don't need one for a Sun, so don't price it in.

Anybody with a `workstation sensibility' specifying a PC platform
will specify a decent monitor for themselves, which may well be
the exact same monitor that would be on a Sun. On the other hand,
can you get a Sun with a 14" b/w VGA monitor, which is all you
really want to pay for on a server? Or do you have to go out and
buy a terminal (though that's hardly more expensive these days,
assuming you can find one used).

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson    curt@portal.ca		Info at http://www.portal.ca/
Internet Portal Services, Inc.	
Vancouver, BC   (604) 257-9400		De gustibus, aut bene aut nihil.