Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!janus!kennish
From: kennish@janus.uucp (Ken A. Nishimura)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Re: Questions on 5400 systems
Keywords: 5400, vax, risc, ultrix, 3000, dec
Message-ID: <30464@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 8 Aug 89 06:49:40 GMT
References: <106@pserv.UUCP>
Reply-To: kennish@janus.UUCP (Ken A. Nishimura)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 36

We have a 5400 in the cabinet (not floor pedestal) type
case.  I have run some i/o benchmarks against the DecStation
3100.  Preliminary results indicate that the RA90 with the
DecSystem 5400 is 4.87 times as fast as a DecStation 3100.
Now, the DecStation 3100 is about 4 times as fast as a uVAX
II/GPX with RD54 drives, or about 0.8 times as fast as a
VAX8800 with RA81 drives.  Therefore, the 5400 with RA90's
can be considered to be quite fast.

As far as porting software for the 5400 - it is 100% binary
compatible (DEC claim, yet to be disproven here) with the 3100
except for the OS (device drivers).  Hence, any DS3100 application
should run on the 5400.  As far as the OS, well, it's quite similar
to the OS for Vaxen, but there are some differences.  As we
are field testing Ultrix for both Vax and Risc both seem about
the same number of problems, although the bugs are not identical.
Overall, I must say that Ultrix 3.1 is pretty good. (please
no flames!)

As far as CPU performance of the 5400 vs. the 3100, it is about
15% faster,o the 5400 is about 17 times a uVaxII.  FP performance
is about 18% faster.

My opinion -- for CPU, the best bang for your buck is the 2100
(list prices), 3100 (university prices).  If I/O performance is
y (i.e. Ingres/Databases) then the 5400 is worth considering
since its so much faster than the 3100 for I/O.

							-ken

I usually don't post a disclaimer, but since this message contains
numerical data and opinions.......

"All data and statements made above are unofficial and strictly the
opinion of the author.  No connection with the University of
California is expressed or implied."