From: smithr@vxcrna.cern.ch (SMITH,Rand./PPE)
Subject: A/UX speed.
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 12:13:00 GMT

And now, the replies (finally) to the question I asked a few weeks ago.  Sorry
for the long delay; my SO came over and wanted to see Paris.  Sounded good to
me :-) .

(My question is noted with -'s, the answers with >'s)

-A few months ago I posted a question about what is necessary to upgrade a Mac
-IIsi system to AU/X.  At the time, 3.0 was only out in Beta, so I'd like to
-re-ask a similar question, this time assuming A/UX 3.0.  (BTW, I still have
-the summary to the previous question, about what is needed to run A/UX...
-anyone interested in it can email me.)

(Side Note: I've received a few requests, and have searched all my accounts for
the *(&#$ file, but it appears to be located only on my Mac, which is currently
in Wisconsin.  I will mail out the file in a month or so, as soon as I get
back.  Sorry about that.)

From jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov:
The IIsi requires at least 8MB RAM and the FPU chip installed to run
A/UX.

-I've checked out MacWorld and MacUser, and discovered the following:
-4 Meg SIMMS are now $130 or so.  So I can afford 17 Meg RAM. (Yeah!)

From jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov:
Without a doubt, a _very_ good idea. Well worth it.

From vthrc@mailbox.uq.oz.au:
>BTW the Chip Merchant is quoting US$99 for 4M SIMMs currently. FAX: (619)
>268-0874

-240 Meg drives haven't come down much lately; I'm planning to buy from APS,
-which has given me good service previously, and planning to get a Quantum
-drive.  Does the case/name matter much, or will any Quantum 240 drive format
-right out of the box?

From jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov:
>Any disk will work under A/UX... Installation in mucho-easier since HD SETUP
>will partition non-Apple drives now.
>Case/name don't matter... it's the mechanism that does.

-AU/X 3.0 seems to be around $500 educational...thank God I'm still a student.
-9600 baud modems with all the trimmings seem to be around $300.  I've been
-following with some interest the discussion of Macs not liking high-speed
-modems, but seem to have missed the final conclusion.  If I get a V.32bis, and
-V.42 modem, will AU/X handle it at top speed?  (on a Mac IIsi).

From jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov:
I'll defer this one...

(Side note again:  Nobody answered this one, and it's fairly important to me.
Does anyone know?  What is the (practicable) top speed of a modem on a Mac IIsi
running A/UX?  Or any Mac?)

-The sum total of the above is around $2000, which is around what I was planning
-to spend, anyway.  The main point of the above is that I want a machine that I
-can write and run straightforward C or FORTRAN code on.  Mostly numerical,
-without much I/O or graphics of any kind.  So, the main question is, how fast
-will such a machine be?  Feel free to compare to any other workstation out
-there, I've used most of them.  Any suggestions on other hardware/software I
-could get to improve the situation would be helpful as well!

From jim@jagubox.gsfc.nasa.gov:
>f77 that comes with A/UX is kinda a dog... getting MacFortranII for A/UX
>(~$500) would be a good investment. Speed should be similar to some 286/386
>PC's out there... Maybe 3000-4000 dhrystones.

(Another side note:  Hmm...$500 to run Fortran reasonably, or learn C and run
GNU C for free...the choice is clear!)

From d88-jwa@nada.kth.se:
>Mac IIsi running A/UX: Faster than Sun3, slower than (current) Sun4.
>Maybe equal to the early, slow SPARCs.
>You need the FPU, and mucho memory (17 megs are OK) and a large
>fast disk (240 MB Quantum is OK; APS have treated me OK too)
>And a CD ROM reader; but you need that for anything these days.
>Don't buy NEC since they don't work with A/UX. Toshibas are OK,
>and the CD Tech Porta one is a Toshiba inside.

From powellb@kurgan.Colorado.edu:
>        There's no way to even compare a workstation with the Mac.  Every
>aspect of any Workstation is much faster than the Mac.  I have some satellite
>navigation software that performs map generations, scale, etc. to satellite
>dumps.  For one 20 meg file, it takes about 5-7 minutes on a DECstation 5000.
>About 3-4 minutes on an IBM RS/6000, and 96 minutes on my Mac IIfx with 16
>megs.
>So, as you can see, they aren't even close.  However, with A/UX 3.0, I can
>run a lot of things at decent speeds that don't make me wait.  If I run huge
>programs though, they are done on the workstations...
>        I am considering running A/UX 3.0 at home on a IIx, and I think the
>speed will be fine for what I want to do.  It is a very nice system.  It just
>isn't workstation speed...

Finally, thanks for all the replies, and I hope this collection will be
helpful to others as well.  I'm looking forward to my new Mac workstation-wanna
-be already! :-)

        Randy
        rsmith@wisp4.physics.wisc.edu
        rsmith@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov

Newsgroups: comp.unix.aux