I am looking to get a sun but I am a newbie when it comes to suns
architecture. I am currently looking at a Ultra 5 Workstation 360MHz.

Coming from an intel world, I see the 360MHz and laugh. Is there a general
rule of thumb I can use to tell what the equivalent would be in a intel?

thanks

On Thu, 20 May 2004 03:10:04 -0400, dan <dcasey@bestweb.net> wrote:
>
>I am looking to get a sun but I am a newbie when it comes to suns
>architecture. I am currently looking at a Ultra 5 Workstation 360MHz.
>
>Coming from an intel world, I see the 360MHz and laugh. Is there a general
>rule of thumb I can use to tell what the equivalent would be in a intel?

Not really, since you're comparing 32-bit vs 64-bit architecture.
Be more specific and clarify what you want to do with a Sun machine,
perhaps there are other alternatives / tips / hints that is more
suitable for you?

If you want to learn Solaris OE, there's Solaris x86, which saves you
the hassle of purchasing a SPARC. If you want to familiar yourself
with SPARC architecture, you might want to browse sunsolve.sun.com (Sun
System Handbook) and then scout for prices on eBay, etc.

--
slrn is a command line newsreader.
please reply, to the newsgroup(s).

dan <dcasey@bestweb.net> writes:
>I am looking to get a sun but I am a newbie when it comes to suns
>architecture. I am currently looking at a Ultra 5 Workstation 360MHz.
>Coming from an intel world, I see the 360MHz and laugh. Is there a general
>rule of thumb I can use to tell what the equivalent would be in a intel?

You are also looking at a 7 year old system (FCS 12/1997 according to
the Sun handbook). What was popular in the Intel world at the time,
especially in the low-end entry level stuff? A 32-bit PII-250?



--
Doug McIntyre merlyn@visi.com
Network Engineer/Jack of All Trades
Vector Internet Services, Inc.

Le Thu, 20 May 2004 03:10:04 -0400, dan a écrit*:

>
> I am looking to get a sun but I am a newbie when it comes to suns
> architecture. I am currently looking at a Ultra 5 Workstation 360MHz.
>
> Coming from an intel world, I see the 360MHz and laugh. Is there a general
> rule of thumb I can use to tell what the equivalent would be in a intel?

Sure. Remember the Ultra 5 is a system dating from 1997/98. I remember
extremely clearly that in May of 1998, the very fastest PC available was a
Pentium II 333Mhz, because I had to buy one for a particular job. Mhz for
Mhz, the UltraSparc IIe is much faster than a Pentium II, especially the
FPU which is certainly 2 or 3 times better.

So please avoid comparing apples and bananas. Of course an ancient U5 is
slower than a brand new P4@3Ghz.

--
Je suis riche des biens dont je sais me passer.
Louis-Jean-Baptiste Etienne Vigée.

In article <pan.2004.05.20.07.10.03.538417@bestweb.net>,
dan <dcasey@bestweb.net> wrote:
>
>I am looking to get a sun but I am a newbie when it comes to suns
>architecture. I am currently looking at a Ultra 5 Workstation 360MHz.
>
>Coming from an intel world, I see the 360MHz and laugh. Is there a general
>rule of thumb I can use to tell what the equivalent would be in a intel?

That's a tough question to answer; it really depends on what you're
going to do with it. As others have pointed out, the Ultra 5 is a
seven-year-old machine, so keep that in mind. The stock configuration
includes a pretty low-end IDE drive; you'd want to replace that or
(better yet) drop in a SCSI controller and drive.

If you're looking for the broadest possible range of processors
benchmarked (apart from Byte Magazine's monumental benchmark effort in
1983), a good starting place is http://www.specbench.org/benchmarks.html

They list a 333MHz Ultra 10 (same board in a tower case) as CINT2000 133,
CFP2000 126. By comparison, a 750MHz Pentium III is listed at 325/219,
and a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 is listed at 1666/1546.

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