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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uwm.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!venus.sun.com!uk-usenet.uk.sun.com!sungy!usenet From: Casper.Dik@Holland.Sun.COM (Casper H.S. Dik - Network Security Engineer) 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: 9 Jan 1996 10:21:00 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems, Netherlands Lines: 30 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <4ctfic$pg8@sungy.Germany.Sun.COM> References: <4cmopu$d35@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <4crnbe$8a@olympus.nwnet.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: room101.holland.sun.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:1759 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:1889 comp.unix.solaris:56033 comp.unix.aix:67718 aad@nwnet.net (Anthony D'Atri) writes: >They're also 64-bit machines, which means that various software is going to >be unstable on them for a while yet. Alphas have been out for several years, >and people are still figuring out how to port things to them reliably. Both the OS and the software currently runs in 32-bit mode only. Even when 64 bit Solaris hits the shelves, most applications will continue to be 32 bit for some time, especially as 32 bit apps consume less memory and run faster on most 32 bit platforms. OSF/1^H^H^H^H^HDigital Unix doesn't require 32MB to run for nothing. Many people think more address bits is more speed but they've been brainwashed by Intel and the x86 compilers that suck: most Intel compilers can't/couldn't mix 16bit addressing with 32 bit arithmetic so you needed to use 32 bit all the way to get the advantage of newer instructions and thus the 32bitness seemed to be the performance improver. More databits matter, though, especially when going from 16->32. The most important requirement when making UltraSPARC machine w/ 2.5 was: they must run all current SPARC apps unchanged. And they seem to be living up to that promise well. Casper -- Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems. Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may be fiction rather than truth.