- #36
graphic7
Gold Member
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Genesi has some very affordable (http://www.genesippc.com/) PowerPC systems. Most new SPARC systems aren't exactly affordable (the new Sun Ultra 25 is the low-end SPARC workstation sold by Sun and it starts at ~ $2,500); however, many that are in the 7- to -10-year-old range can be had for pennies:
Ultra 2 ~ $50 - $200
Ultra 60 ~ $100-$300
Ultra 80 ~ $200-$400
Blade 1000 ~ $300 - $1,500
These prices vary per configuration. For example, my Blade 1000 /w 2x750MHz UltraSPARC-III processors (8MB of L2 cache/proc), 2GB of memory, and a single 36.6GB internal fibre-channel disk would run around $400 now, but a config with 2x1.2GHz UltraSPARC-III CU procs would run close to $1,500.
The fact that SPARC systems are generally more expensive doesn't mean that SPARC is better than PowerPC (in some regard, it *may* be, but this is irrelevant). All this implies is that the current set of SPARC manufacturers (Fujitsu and Sun) aren't producing economical SPARCv9-compliant systems, whereas, vendors like Genesi are producing such PowerPC-based systems. IBM, on the hand, while a PowerPC vendor uses PowerPC-based processors in their high-end graphics workstations and servers, but these are far from economical (similar to SPARC in terms of cost).
The market for SPARC workstations has gotten much better. One may shudder at the starting price of $2,500 for the Ultra 25; however, my Blade 1000 in the year 2000 would've run around $30,000.
Ultra 2 ~ $50 - $200
Ultra 60 ~ $100-$300
Ultra 80 ~ $200-$400
Blade 1000 ~ $300 - $1,500
These prices vary per configuration. For example, my Blade 1000 /w 2x750MHz UltraSPARC-III processors (8MB of L2 cache/proc), 2GB of memory, and a single 36.6GB internal fibre-channel disk would run around $400 now, but a config with 2x1.2GHz UltraSPARC-III CU procs would run close to $1,500.
The fact that SPARC systems are generally more expensive doesn't mean that SPARC is better than PowerPC (in some regard, it *may* be, but this is irrelevant). All this implies is that the current set of SPARC manufacturers (Fujitsu and Sun) aren't producing economical SPARCv9-compliant systems, whereas, vendors like Genesi are producing such PowerPC-based systems. IBM, on the hand, while a PowerPC vendor uses PowerPC-based processors in their high-end graphics workstations and servers, but these are far from economical (similar to SPARC in terms of cost).
The market for SPARC workstations has gotten much better. One may shudder at the starting price of $2,500 for the Ultra 25; however, my Blade 1000 in the year 2000 would've run around $30,000.
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