SUN vs SGI
Rob Harper
Rob.Harper at csc.fi
Tue May 11 06:46:31 EST 1993
The discussion on SUN vs SGI was debated from a very personal
viewpoint. Here are some hard facts gleaned from another newsgroup that
discuss things like price/performance. It is worth a read. Standard
disclaimers apply.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% CLIP %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
I'd like to thank the over ten respondents who provided information related
to my recent posting looking for relative benchmarks and other information
comparing SGI Indigo machines to Sun SPARCstations. I will summarize the
responses briefly below.
Most useful (from a statistics point of view) is a posting I read in the
comp.sys.sun.hardware newsgroup (included next). Can anyone augment this
table with (credible) data for the (R3000- and R4000-based) Indigo machines?
The way it looks here (and in Michael Schulman's note below it), the difference
between the mid-range SPARCstations and Indigos really isn't all that big.
(I guess I'll upgrade my SPARCstations-IPX to a SparcStation 10/30 then.)
============================================================================
From: jacobsd at jasper.CS.ORST.EDU (Dana Jacobsen)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.sys.sun.hardware
Subject: Re: SPECrate for various vendors
Summary: SPECrate table
Date: 8 May 93 03:30:32 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department, Oregon State University
Here is a table of all the SPECrate numbers I've seen so far. There's a
little summary at the end. If anyone has any other numbers or corrections,
please send them to me. It is a little hard to keep track of these
if one doesn't get the SPEC newsletter (it's way too expensive for me to
get, and the people at work seem to think we do OK by grabbing numbers from
publications, so they won't pay for it either). The numbers tend to
change through time (as new OS's and compilers get used), as well as being
subject to mistake (often the only way to get a number is from a competitors
brief, and they tend to use older numbers or misplace digits (the DEC briefs
say that the IBM RS/6000-580 has a SPECint92 of 61.7, even though IBM
repeatedly states in it's documents that it has a 67.1 rating). Another
problem is when a vendor shifts compilers and one number goes up and the
other goes down. Which should I use? <sigh So far the SPECrate numbers
have been subject to far less change than the SPEC92 numbers.
*****************************************************************************
SPEC92rate benchmark results
*****************************************************************************
Man Model Procs Sr92int Sr92fp Approx list price
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sun SparcStation 2 517 541 15,000
Sun SparcServer 600-140 4 1,847 1,930
Sun SparcStation Classic 626 498.1 6,000
Sun SparcStation LX 626 498.1 9,000
Sun SparcStation 10/30LC 1,072 1,282 16,000
Sun SparcStation 10/30 1,072 1,282 19,000
Sun SparcStation 10/40 1,191 1,427 21,000
Sun SparcStation 10/41 1,264 1,607 23,000
Sun SparcStation 10/51 1,847 1,930 28,000
Sun SparcStation 10/402MP 2 2,112 2,378 25,000
Sun SparcStation 10/412MP 2 2,411 2,854
Sun SparcStation 10/512MP 2 2,950 3,744 34,000
Sun SparcStation 10/54 4 5,063 6,142 46,000
Sun SparcCenter 2000 2 2,326 2,953 95,000
Sun SparcCenter 2000 4 4,539 5,627 130,000
Sun SparcCenter 2000 8 8,047 10,600 197,000
DEC 3000/300L AXP (OSF/1) 1,081 1,480 7,300
DEC 3000/300 AXP (OSF/1) 1,535 2,137 10,700
DEC 3000/400 AXP 1,549 2,631 16,000
DEC 3000/400 AXP (OSF/1) 1,763 2,662 16,000
DEC 3000/500 AXP 1,762 2,967 39,000
DEC 3000/500 AXP (OSF/1) 1,997 3,023 39,000
DEC 4000/610 AXP 1,986 3,317 70,000
DEC 4000/610 AXP (OSF/1) 2,198 3,247 70,000
DEC 4000/610 AXP 2 3,816 6,215
DEC 7000/610 AXP 2,189 4,217 150,000
DEC 7000/610 AXP (OSF/1) 2,572 4,179 150,000
DEC 7000/610 AXP 2 4,291 8,135 >150,000
DEC 7000/610 AXP 3 6,307 11,860 >150,000
DEC 7000/610 AXP 4 8,369 15,739 >150,000
DEC 10000/610 AXP (OSF/1) 2,765 4,368 300,000
DEC 10000/610 AXP 4 9,108 17,187 >300,000
HP 9000/715/50 866 1,710 15,000
HP 9000/725 866 1,710 20,000
HP 9000/735 1,832 2,950 41,000
HP 887S 1,854 3,490
HP 890 1 1,215 1,180
HP 890/2 2 2,253 2,360
HP 890/4 4 4,301 4,685
IBM RS/6000 355 961 1,936 20,000
IBM RS/6000 365 1,148 2,301 23,000
IBM RS/6000 375 1,332 2,612 27,500
IBM RS/6000 970B 1,117 2,220 94,000
IBM RS/6000 980B 1,404 2,960 114,000
SGI Crimson R4000 1,383 1,459 29,000
SGI Challenge L (R4000) 4 5,562 6,131 <110,000
SGI Challenge L (R4000) 8 10,177 12,020 <190,000
SGI Challenge L (R4000) 12 13,406 17,370 <270,000
DG Aviion 532 2 933 621
DG Aviion 5225 2 868 532
DG Aviion 5240 4 1,591 971
DG Aviion 6280 8 3,245 -----
SNI MX500-90/2 12 4,870 -----
SNI MX500-90/2 4 1,919
*****************************************************************************
end of table
*****************************************************************************
So with price no object, the winners in SPECrate_int are:
SGI Challenge L (R4000) 12 13,406 17,370 <270,000
SGI Challenge L (R4000) 8 10,177 12,020 <190,000
DEC 10000/610 AXP 4 9,108 17,187 >300,000
DEC 7000/610 AXP 4 8,369 15,739 >150,000
Sun SparcCenter 2000 8 8,047 10,600 197,000
DEC 7000/610 AXP 3 6,307 11,860 >150,000
SGI Challenge L (R4000) 4 5,562 6,131 <110,000
Sun SparcStation 10/54 4 5,063 6,142 46,000
Price no object, SPECrate_fp:
SGI Challenge L (R4000) 12 13,406 17,370 <270,000
DEC 10000/610 AXP 4 9,108 17,187 >300,000
DEC 7000/610 AXP 4 8,369 15,739 >150,000
SGI Challenge L (R4000) 8 10,177 12,020 <190,000
DEC 7000/610 AXP 3 6,307 11,860 >150,000
Sun SparcCenter 2000 8 8,047 10,600 197,000
DEC 7000/610 AXP 2 4,291 8,135 >150,000
DEC 4000/610 AXP 2 3,816 6,215 >70,000
Sun SparcStation 10/54 4 5,063 6,142 46,000
SGI Challenge L (R4000) 4 5,562 6,131 <110,000
Sun SparcCenter 2000 4 4,539 5,627 130,000
Price under $50k, SPECrate_int:
Sun SparcStation 10/54 4 5,063 6,142 46,000
Sun SparcStation 10/512MP 2 2,950 3,744 34,000
Sun SparcStation 10/412MP 2 2,411 2,854
Sun SparcStation 10/402MP 2 2,112 2,378 25,000
DEC 3000/500 AXP (OSF/1) 1,997 3,023 39,000
Sun SparcStation 10/51 1,847 1,930 28,000
HP 9000/735 1,832 2,950 41,000
DEC 3000/400 AXP 1,549 2,631 16,000
DEC 3000/300 AXP (OSF/1) 1,535 2,137 10,700
DEC 3000/400 AXP (OSF/1) 1,763 2,662 16,000
DEC 3000/500 AXP 1,762 2,967 39,000
Price under $50k, SPECrate_fp:
Sun SparcStation 10/54 4 5,063 6,142 46,000
Sun SparcStation 10/512MP 2 2,950 3,744 34,000
DEC 3000/500 AXP (OSF/1) 1,997 3,023 39,000
DEC 3000/500 AXP 1,762 2,967 39,000
HP 9000/735 1,832 2,950 41,000
DEC 3000/400 AXP (OSF/1) 1,763 2,662 16,000
DEC 3000/400 AXP 1,549 2,631 16,000
IBM RS/6000 375 1,332 2,612 27,500
============================================================================
From: mas at everest.esd.sgi.com (Michael Schulman)
Date: Wed, 5 May 93 11:00:20 -0700
Subject: Re: Indigo vs. SPARC (Novice's question)
IRIS Indigo R4K-XZ SS10-41 GX
mips 85 96
mflops 16 17
specint92 58 53
specfp92 61 65
YOU might think that the sun is faster, but ...
load 3D model 53 secs 67 secs
recreate part 195 secs 260 secs
rotate 12 secs 77 secs
(20 frames) (shaded) (wirerame)
Micha
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