7/24    hello, does anyone knwo if there is a reasonable comparison of
        perforance of x86 unixes? there is some circa 1996 stuff at
        http://mosquitonet.stanford.edu/~laik/benchmarks but obviously
        something more uptodate would be nice. this is for a high-end
        machine, in case that makes a difference. --psb
        \-jeeze louise: high-end is relative to it's class. by this i mean
        a pentium 400 and not a pentium66 ... i dont know if one of the OSes
        makes compromises to run nicely on lower end hardware. Obviously i am
        not referring to a $24million dollar computer. --psb
        \_ COMMODOR 64 RULES ALL
        \_ "high-end x86" hmmmm
          \_ as opposed to being on, say, a 386 ?
            \_ "high-end Cray/Alpha/Solaris", okay... "high-end x86" hmmmmmmm
                \_ Death to all the closed minded technology-at-any-price
                   bigots!
                \_ what about a low end Cray? hmmm...
                \_ I'll put a PII-400 against your EV4 Alpha or Sun Sparc
                   at any speeds they sell to the market.  Wake up.
                   \_ Are you on drugs? While comparable in integer
                      performance, Intel chips still suck at floating
                      point -- and then you get to deal with crappy PC
                      hardware, too. --dim
                        \_ The last time you used FP was....?  The rest of
                           hardware is whatever you put in the box.  What
                           crappy hardware were you referring to exactly?
                           The same HDs made by seagate/wd/quantum, etc?
                           The same video chips/cards from asia?  The same
                           memory from asia?  Hell, even your mouse is
                           probably from the same factory in asia.  No, I'm
                           not on drugs.  I have my mind open and my
                           calculator on.  I left my bible in the trash.
                           \_ Floating point is very important to many of
                              the applications I run. I don't even bother
                              looking at integer performance. PC hardware
                              is kludgy and lame. Remember that the next
                              time you're flashing your BIOS to get your
                              MMX-enhanced, PnP, jumperless, EIDE (ha!
                              although Sun has succumbed) controller
                              working. Intel makes good chips at excellent
                              prices. There's a lot more to a machine than
                              CPU performance though (e.g. bus speeds).
                              PCs are still mid-range and don't forget it.
                              --dim (who loves X86 boxes but isn't blinded
                                     by Wintel)
                           \_ There's a lot more why the x86 architecture
                              sucks besides FP.  FP is used a lot in lossy
                              decompression (like mp3) and high end
                              graphics.
                           \_ /dev/hme, zs0, ring overflow.  Gogo SUN
                              cheap ass parts. --jon
                              (okay to be fair, even with these crappy
                               parts that have been around for ages and
                               have much better functional replacements
                               around now, Sun makes sparc workstations
                               work and work consistently)
                   \_ Er, um, a PII-400 will stomp an EV4 alpha on nearly
                      anything.  EV4's are the same generation as Pentiums...

h0zer
                      EV5 (21164) alphas are comparable in int, faster in
                      fp.  Ultras are also comparible in int to PII, and
                      also faster in FP.  --PeterM
                        \_ Exactly my point.  You're choosing to put the P2
                           against another chip based on integer performance
                           and then say it sucks against that chip by another
                           measure.  Let's turn that around and compare an
                           Intel chip vs. an Alpha with the same FP and then
                           we can all say how much the Alpha sucks compared to
                           "a comparable" Intel chip.
                        \_ do you realize how stupid that is?  Pitting Intel's
                           current fastest processor against a processor Dec
                           made two years ago, just because the processor Dec
                           made two years ago was as fast then as Intel's
                           fastest chip is now, is absurd.  Match Intel's
                           fastest chip against Dec's.  Or do a bang-for-buck.
                   \_ I dunno, our UE10000 is awfully zippy...
                        \_ Sparc, not Ultra.  Just making the point that
                           not all sparc/alpha >>> all intel.  Throw in some
                           price/performance numbers and intel starts looking
                           pretty damned good for a lot of things.
                           \_ Motorola 680x0 will always be here.  You
                              are not ready for immortality.
        \_ Apparently not.