What are the differences between x86 and Sparc

[Daniel Seichter]

Hello,
can anyone tell me the main differences between running solaris on x86 or on
sparc?
Which speed is the Ultra 150 with 650MHz equal to a x86 architecture?

I hope to find some answers here, because I don't know, if I should buy a
XEON or a SPARC

Thank you

Daniel Seichter

[Will Hartung]

"Daniel Seichter" <daniel@dseichter.de> wrote in message
news:bg5tel$e8f$1@news.dtag.de...

> Hello,
> can anyone tell me the main differences between running solaris on x86 or

on

> sparc?
> Which speed is the Ultra 150 with 650MHz equal to a x86 architecture?
>
> I hope to find some answers here, because I don't know, if I should buy a
> XEON or a SPARC

I can't answer your question specifically, and of course it really depends
on your application and needs.

But when I went shopping for a use Blade 100, I ended up with an Ultra 10.
The compelling difference for me was that while the MHz was faster on the
Blade (The Ultra was 440 vs the Blade 500), the Ultra had 4X the chip cache
(2MB vs 512K). Now, they may be different processors as well (I don't really
know), but with the lower price of Ultras and the higher cache, I felt it
was actually a better value. I think for many apps, I got a faster machine
for less money.

How it compares with Intel stuff, I haven't any idea.

Regards,

Will Hartung
(willh@msoft.com)

[Tom Hamilton]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 14:46:17 +0200, Daniel Seichter wrote:

> Hello,
> can anyone tell me the main differences between running solaris on x86 or on
> sparc?
> Which speed is the Ultra 150 with 650MHz equal to a x86 architecture?
>
> I hope to find some answers here, because I don't know, if I should buy a
> XEON or a SPARC
>
> Thank you
>
> Daniel Seichter

Do you want to know the differnce between the processor "power" or the
differences of running Solaris on them?

[Tuesday]

"Daniel Seichter" <daniel@dseichter.de> wrote in message
news:bg5tel$e8f$1@news.dtag.de...

> Hello,
> can anyone tell me the main differences between running solaris on x86 or

on

> sparc?
> Which speed is the Ultra 150 with 650MHz equal to a x86 architecture?
>
> I hope to find some answers here, because I don't know, if I should buy a
> XEON or a SPARC
>
> Thank you
>
> Daniel Seichter
>
>

The CPU in the Ultra 150 (a 650MHz UltraSPARC IIe, which Sun renamed to
UltraSPARC IIi) dissipates less than 20W, a Xeon is a lot closer to 60W.

Sun has complete control of the entire architecture in their boxes,
historically an UltraSPARC machine is comparable to an x86 architecture
running about twice the clock rate. There are many caveats to a general
observation like this one, especially if an application is large or
networked or moves huge amounts of data around.

An UltraSPARC machine can run the 64-bit Solaris kernel or the 32-bit
kernel...I think a Xeon can only run the 32-bit kernel. Doesn't make too
much difference unless you work with very large datasets or do a lot of
precision math (e.g. - simulation), in which case the 64-bit kernel would
probably be better. As time goes by more and more applications will need
the 64-bit kernel.

MasterToyFixer

[Daniel Seichter]

Hello,

> The CPU in the Ultra 150 (a 650MHz UltraSPARC IIe, which Sun renamed to
> UltraSPARC IIi) dissipates less than 20W, a Xeon is a lot closer to 60W.
>
> Sun has complete control of the entire architecture in their boxes,
> historically an UltraSPARC machine is comparable to an x86 architecture
> running about twice the clock rate. There are many caveats to a general
> observation like this one, especially if an application is large or
> networked or moves huge amounts of data around.
>
> An UltraSPARC machine can run the 64-bit Solaris kernel or the 32-bit
> kernel...I think a Xeon can only run the 32-bit kernel. Doesn't make too
> much difference unless you work with very large datasets or do a lot of
> precision math (e.g. - simulation), in which case the 64-bit kernel would
> probably be better. As time goes by more and more applications will need
> the 64-bit kernel.

I have some reasons, why I want to leave the 32bit and "windows":
- want to learn java
- don't need the spectrum the x86 architecture,
- all I need is a development IDE, mailreader, newsreader and browser
- the costs of windows and its software
- there are no really new innovations on the x86
- don't like to have a half/half architecture like AMD
- Itanium is too expensive and no out-of-the-box solution seen yet
- Linux is not Unix and all main software I also want to use is available on
solaris (postgreSQL, ...)
- ...

My colegue asked me, why I want to buy a SPARC, when I can buy a dual XEON
and use Solaris too, and this was the reason for my posting here.

Thank you

Daniel Seichter

[Philip Brown]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 14:46:17 +0200, [email]daniel@dseichter.de[/email] wrote:

>Hello,
>can anyone tell me the main differences between running solaris on x86 or on
>sparc?
>Which speed is the Ultra 150 with 650MHz equal to a x86 architecture?
>
>I hope to find some answers here, because I don't know, if I should buy a
>XEON or a SPARC

first say what you are considering purchasing one FOR.



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Organized by the author of pkg-get
[Trim the no-bots from my address to reply to me by email!]
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[Anthony Mandic]

Daniel Seichter wrote:

> > first say what you are considering purchasing one FOR.

> XEON will be: Single or Dual 2,8GHz (512kB Cache,..)
> SPARC will be: SUN Ultra 150 with UltraSparcIIi 650MHz

That wasn't what he was asking. For that purpose do you want
this system?

-am © 2003

[Daniel Seichter]

Hello Anthony,

> That wasn't what he was asking. For that purpose do you want
> this system?

He asked, what a system I want to prefer and I prefer the SPARC.

Daniel

[Will Hartung]

"Daniel Seichter" <daniel@dseichter.de> wrote in message
news:bgd98s$q58$1@news.dtag.de...

> Hello Anthony,
>

> > That wasn't what he was asking. For that purpose do you want
> > this system?

> He asked, what a system I want to prefer and I prefer the SPARC.

Please fill in the blank:

"I prefer the SPARC, as my system is going to be doing ___________"