Re: [PLUG] Maybe OT - "Supported" Unix on Intel CPUs?

["William H. Magill" <magill@mcgillsociety.org>]

On Tuesday, October 15, 2002, at 11:08  AM, Michael Leone wrote:
> I have this IBM RS/6000 box that we're looking into 
> replacing/upgrading.
> This box runs PICK, which is a virtual database environment, kind of 
> the
> way Oracle & DB2 are their own environments. Anyway, we happen to have
> this server level PC lying around (an Intel P4-based box, lotta RAM and
> RAID), and the boss is wondering if we could use it, instead of a new
> RS/6000. New RS/6000 hardware is expensive. :-)

If you have to upgrade an RS/6000 any P4 based box you have laying 
around will be a much lower performing box... especially if it is 
cheaper. The price difference between Intel based hardware and 
proprietary hardware is much less than people believe it is real urban 
folklore. When you configure the Intel box with the same features as 
the RS/6000 it comes out very close to, if not more than equivalent 
non-intel boxes.

>  Are there any "real" Unices that run on
> Intel CPUs, that are supported like that? I don't believe so. Most of 
> the
> "real" Unix vendors are on proprietary hardware, aren't they? (IBM 
> w/AIX,
> Sun /Solaris on their SPARC machines, HP similarly, etc).

To the best of my knowledge, you are correct. No "Unix" (ie Unix 
branded) runs on Intel. SCO might be the closest thing to "Unix" that 
does, except that it doesn't exist anymore. (I forget who bought them, 
Novell maybe?)

> Let's not even mention the fact that the new RS/6000 would be one of 
> those
> 64 bit versions, etc, and the other hardware is basically a clone box.

This is actually the real crux of the issue. How big is the database?
Database performance is directly related to the ability of the database 
to fit into available RAM. VLM (Very Large Memory) configurations are 
needed and wanted for database applications. That's why 64bit computing 
exists today, more than any other reason.

Sadly, IBM is really the only game in town today. Tru64 Unix would have 
been my recommendation but since the end of Compaq it doesn't really 
have a future and I wouldn't trust HP-UX for anything mission critical. 
Solaris is cute, but if you are willing to run Solaris, you can just as 
easisly run Linux -- the support for the two is equivalent. (Sun 
support stinks, and is all done by 3rd parties anyway.)

As for supported Linux -- Compaq and IBM are your only vendors of 
choice. They both sell both hardware and software as well as support in 
the linux space aimed directly at Enterprise Computing. 
(www.compaq.com/linux), (www.ibm.com/linux).

Since you already have an RS/6000 an "upgrade" to Linux on RS/6000 
should get you some kind of "trade in" deal from IBM.

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com

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