Questions about Sun Compatibles

[Doug Roberts]

In article <4899 at brazos.Rice.edu> dan at ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov writes:

| Currently, we are in need of more file server power and file space.  Does
| anybody on the net have any strong feelings to relate or any good or bad
| experiences with Solbourne or any other Sun-compatable vendors in terms of
| reliability, cost, maintenance, compatability, and expandability?

We recently invited Solbourne here to Los Alamos to demo their Model 5/500
22 MIPs, 4.6 MFLOP desktop machine. I spent the day checking out its Sun
SPARC compatibility, and ended up being quite impressed with the machine.
I actually coaxed 40 MIPS out of it when it was in it's dual-CPU
configuration. I was so impressed, in fact, that I'm purchasing one
instead of upgrading my 3/260 to a 16 MIP 4/330. It will cost ~$2,500 more
than upgrading, but on the other hand I will end up with two machines
instead of one!

I didn't find any software incompatibilities with the Solbourne vs.  Sun
SPARC. I spent most of my time exercising Sun (Lucid) Common Lisp.  The
machine was running a liscensed derivitive of Sun OS4.0.1 with 4.0.3
available Any Day Now. The performance was really impressive: It really
did crank out 22 MIPS in it's single-CPU (33 MHz SPARC) configuration.
Also, I was interested to see if it's frame buffer could drive a Sun
high-res (1600 X 1280) monochrome monitor, and it did. Just plug & run.
It is faster and cheaper than anything Sun currently has, and since it has
a multiple CPU architecture, it can readily grow to meet increased
computing requirements, especially as a server. The 5/500 has a memory
expansion capability to 256 MB, and a synchronous SCSI that you get to via
a funky Centronics-type connector instead of either Sun's 50 pin D or mini
SCSI connector.

As far as reliability and service, only time will tell, of course.
Solbourne said that they had a guaranteed 24-hour board shipping
maintenance plan.

Douglas Roberts               
dzzr at lanl.gov