Multiprocessor system VS one processor system

[Olaf Hoyer]

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Simon wrote:

>
> What exactly is not easily achievable with a modern dual Xeon Intel server
> with 20 modern SCSI harddrives and proper RAID card? that is on an old
> E450 Sparc? have you personally done any testing to back this up? surely,
> the chipset design of Intel boards are not up-to-par with latest Sun servers,
> but Intel is catching up. There was just never enough demand until now.

Yes, its an E450 with 4x400MHZ Ultrasparc 2, IIRC with 2 or 4MB 2nd
level cache, acting as mail server, pumping several millions of emails
around per day, with 2 million mailboxes to deliver to, being one of
several mailhosts.

You simply need the 5 SCSI busses and 18 spindles (2 for OS) for
mailspool
performance, and the stability of the hardware and the scalability
of Solaris under high stress and load.

Thats a region where a i386-based box won't fit easily, also the
diagnostics regarding flaky RAM or CPU are way better with SUN than with
most i386-based hardware.

We did some test with a 480 with external storages, therefore less
SCSI-busses. The 480 clearly lost.

>
> -Simon
>
 Olaf
-- 
Olaf Hoyer        ohoyer at gaff.hhhr.ision.net
Fuerchterliche Erlebniss geben zu raten,
ob der, welcher sie erlebt, nicht etwas Fuerchterliches ist.
(Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Boese)