[ REQ 5429]: Hardware!

[barnes at macadam.mpce.mq.edu.au]

I know, hardware isn't software, but I wasn't sure who to write to.

I'm in the process of choosing a graphics workstation. One of the main
tasks will be to run Geomview and the surface evolver. We will also be
doing some other reasonably intensive floating point stuff: finite
elements, wavelets etc. I'm looking for advice on the relative merits of
different choices.

Systems that have been proposed to me include:

- Silicon Graphics Indy, R4400SC @ 175 MHz, 8-bit XL graphics, 1MB
  secondary cache, 1 GB hard disk, 64 MB memory, 17" monitor.
  (SPECint92 122.6, SPECfp92 115.5, AIM 118.4)

- Sun Sparc 20 model 61, running at 60 MHz, "Supercache", 8-bit
  accelerated graphics, 20" monitor, 64 MB, 1.05 GB disk.
  (SPECint92 93.0, SPECfp92 106.0, AIM 63.1)

- DEC Alpha 200 running at 166 or233 MHz with 8-bit graphics, 64 MB,
  21" monitor, 1 GB hard disk. Cache?
  (166 MHz SPECfp92 134.8, 233 MHz SPECfp92 183.9)

With SGI I could probably just afford a 20" monitor, but I could only get
the XZ graphics if I went for a slower CPU with no cache. Similarly with
the Sparc and the Alpha.

So my most precise question is, how specific is Geomview to SGI? Does it
require the XZ graphics to work properly? Will it be ten times slower
without it, or without SGI-specific graphics calls?

More generally, do you have any information or experience of the relative
performance and ease of use of these systems for the sort of computing I
want to do? Is it worth my while considering other types of systems - Power
Macintosh? Multiple Pentium?

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Ian Barnes

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Ian Barnes                       Email: barnes at mpce.mq.edu.au
Department of Mathematics        Phone: +61 2 850 9584 (Office)
Macquarie University                    +61 2 850 8114 (Fax)
Sydney NSW 2109                         +61 2 953 6571 (Home - Sydney)
Australia                               +61 6 249 1110 (Home - Canberra)
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