Re: Best Oracle Platform??

From: Paul Ingram <Paul.Ingram_at_ig.co.uk>
Date: 1997/01/20
Message-ID: <E4BE2y.9EH@ig.co.uk>#1/1

In article <19970116123701.HAA17740_at_ladder01.news.aol.com>, BarryAZ <barryaz_at_aol.com> wrote:
>Hi, my name is Barry Schader. I'm in the process of building
>a very small 'data warehouse' (3GB, but growing) using Oracle
>on an Alpha workstation (233MHz) running NT 3.51, which is
>very quickly running out of steam. I didn't expect to run into
>CPU limitations this soon! And struggling without a decent
>batch control language is terrible (going to try Hamilton C Shell).
>
>This thread is very interesting -- thanks for all of the input!
>
>Everything I've read here and elsewhere points in the direction
>of UNIX. And it sounds like an Intel box is going to be pretty
>limiting for me later on. However, I have these problems:
>
>1. Cost of hardware. Compaq Intel box w/2 PPro 200, 256MB memory,
> UltraSCSI, 3x9GB disks is around $25,000. AlphaServer 4100
> with single 400MHz CPU, 512MB, F/W SCSI, one 4GB disk is
> around $60,000 (but admittedly offers much room for growth). Our
> Alpha salesman says that he's seen their I/O subsystem run
> 9 times faster than an Ultra-SCSI based system on an Intel SMP
> box. (?!)

Check out the new Sun SPARCengine Ultra AX. Its an UltraSPARC on the AX (ie PC) format PCI motherboard. It slots straight into a normal PC case and (obviously) runs Solaris. Cost is much more expensive than a Pentium Pro motherboard (about USD2500 for an entry level Ultra) but it *is* a real UltraSPARC motherboard. Oh, one other thing... it'll take the standard PC SIMM format.

Sun are well placed for this product introduction: they already have device drivers for most of the major current PCI boards as a result of Solaris for Intel release. I should imagine that you could put together a 200MHz SPARCengine Ultra AX for about USD8,700 this is a guesstimate :-) but it sounds like it is about 1/3 the price of the Compaq Intel box above. Prices shown are wild guesses and are also conversions from UKP.

Motherboard                    2,500
Good case/PSU                    200
256Mb RAM                      1,200
Adaptec PCI 2940UW SCSI adapter  250
3*9Gb Ultra wide SCSI HD       3,000
CDROM, floppy, keyboard          300

20" Monitor & PCI video card 1,250

I presume you'd have to add the price of Solaris 2.5 to this...

I hope this is of use - you'll find all the correct details on Suns website.

Rgds, Paul.

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Received on Mon Jan 20 1997 - 00:00:00 CST