🚀 go-pugleaf

In comp.os.linux.hardware Mark Addinall <maddinall@iprimus.com.au> wrote:
> 
> 
> William Park wrote:
>> Obviously, you don't do much harddisk trashing.  
> 
> I'll assume that's a typo...

Sorry, it should've been 'thrashing'.  But, now I think about it, I've
crashed my share of disks... :-)

> 
>> For CPU consideration
>> only, dual can run 2 processes, so it's more responsive, both in theory
>> and in practice.  If you are doing lots of IDE I/O, then your computer
>> will crawl no matter what.  So, it makes more sense to go with
>> single-CPU and spend some money on SCSI.
> 
> What?  That's why God invented Cache architectures for use with
> symmetrical multiprocessing systems.  It is ALWAYS better to use
> a multi-processing system for modern operating system architectures.
> No good for CP/M, MS-DOS or Windows 95.  Plenty good for all brands
> of *NIX, winslows2000, NT (VMSII).

I wonder whether you have any experience.  All my machines are dual, and
they crawl whenever I do heavy disk I/O.  SCSI is better in performance.
Of course, I would recommend 1 IDE per cable, simply because it's not
that bad for the money.

>> Also, dual-motherboard is hard to come by and is expensive.  
> 
> Dunno.  I bought one in this newsgroup only a scant few weeks
> ago. A ridgy-didge Gigabyte GA-6BXDU slot 1 i440BX
> dual processor motherboard with an Adaptec AIC78796
> SCSI 32-bits Ultra 2 controller with three 168-pins LVD
> connectors for Ultra SCSI-2, and a 50-pin 8-bit connector for
> supporting Ultra SCSI devices, 4 168 pin DIMM sockets,
> 4 PCI slots, 3 ISA slots, and 1 AGP port, 1x floppy port (360KB-2.88MB)
> 2x serial ports (16550 high-speed), 1x parallel port (EPP/ECP)
> PS/2 Keyboard port, PS/2 Mouse port, 2x USB ports.
> 
> Populated with two Intel Pentium 400 PIII CPUs (LOVE those big
> turbo fan jobs :-))), power supply, tower box, floppy
> drive and complete (and neat) cables.  $180 (AU) ($98 (US)),
> 
> Thank you wonderful people!
> 
> I stuck a spare 20 Gb disk in it, an old CD-ROM from a 233 MMX
> and scrounged around for two 128 Mb DRAM sticks and away we go!
> 
> Redhat 7.3, 2.4.18-3 MPX kernel.
> 
> This box cooks along!  Doing computational biology at
> university, the machine runs X and modelling software,
> and a whole bunch of math in C and pattern matching in Perl.
> 
> My brother has a 1.3 GHz Athelon running up winslows
> 2000 Pro, and my pre-loved box leaves his at the gate ;-)

You are comparing 1.3GHz Athlon Windows with 2xP2/400 Linux.  Apple and
orange.  If you put Linux on 1.3GHz Athlon, it will blow away P2/400.

-- 
William Park, Open Geometry Consulting, <opengeometry@yahoo.ca>
Linux solution for data management and processing.