SPARC

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@dmin

Gawd
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
Messages
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I was wondering if there is any one here that uses SPARC machines...

Also, Is OpenBSD the only OS that has an updated compatible Operating system?

It's funy as old as sparc is it is amazingly fast in database applications.

I have to sun systems a ultra 60 with 2x 450mhx cpu's and 2 gb's of ram. As well as a sunblade 100... I forgot the specs.
 
ugh... Solaris.... I forgot about that.

Seems like the only why to install open sol on a sparc machine is by using a pxe boot.
 
@dmin said:
It's funy as old as sparc is it is amazingly fast in database applications.
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Fast enough, but long ago outclassed by almost everything else available at the same time. ;)
 
um... It cuts oracle query times by a third compared to our Intel E8300 server... same database as well. but its running Solaris 8 that is useless and has been since its release.
 
@dmin said:
um... It cuts oracle query times by a third compared to our Intel E8300 server... same database as well. but its running Solaris 8 that is useless and has been since its release.
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Then you're doing something *really* wrong on the E8300 server.

That Ultra 60 configuration was outclassed by Cascades Xeons (Xeon version of the P3) with similar memory size and disk subsystem over 10 years ago. The only one claiming Ultra SPARC was fast was Sun. Industry benchmarks and other server/workstation loads disagreed. ;)
 
pxc said:
Then you're doing something *really* wrong on the E8300 server.

That Ultra 60 configuration was outclassed by Cascades Xeons (Xeon version of the P3) with similar memory size and disk subsystem over 10 years ago. The only one claiming Ultra SPARC was fast was Sun. Industry benchmarks and other server/workstation loads disagreed. ;)
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We have a Poweredge 2400 with dual Piii and its a joke... You have to remember that oracle is mostly java, which Sun made, which sparc/solaris is optimized for. All I am saying is that a sparc machine runs query's faster, now If there is a sort function may be not. Also Solaris scales multiprocessor systems a lot better than unix or windows.

I'm just presenting an observation...
 
I've got a fully loaded Ultra 80 workstation with a scsi-attached A1000 hardware RAID array and a gigabit Sun NIC. I run Solaris 10 5/08 and use it as an NFS server (to share the hardware RAID array) to my primary file server.

I usually only run it during the winter, it's hot enough to heat my entire apartment to 85*F! Gotta love Sun hardware though, this thing is built like a tank and hasn't had a single part fail (or even act funny) in over three years!
 
Got a Sunfire V100 as a Firewall/VPN/Proxy running FreeBSD 8.2 and a Blade 100 running Solaris 10 as a music recording machine for recording guitar riffs. Solaris 11 dropped support for the Mach series of video cards (ATI/AMD) so I didn't put it on there and left it with 10.
 
We just ditched our last SPARC system, for a nice poweredge 710 (old, too, but whatever) [I'm not finance/MIS, so I don't know much on what really]

Well, I guess I can be a smartass and claim an xbox360... :p
 
@dmin said:
We have a Poweredge 2400 with dual Piii and its a joke... You have to remember that oracle is mostly java, which Sun made, which sparc/solaris is optimized for. All I am saying is that a sparc machine runs query's faster, now If there is a sort function may be not. Also Solaris scales multiprocessor systems a lot better than unix or windows.

I'm just presenting an observation...
Click to expand...

If you don't already know, Solaris is a UNIX based OS. ;)
 
Red Falcon said:
If you don't already know, Solaris is a UNIX based OS. ;)
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Yes... I should have worded that more carefully... :(

Solaris scales multiprocessor systems more efficiently than other UNIX distributions, Linux distributions, and windows.
 
@dmin said:
Yes... I should have worded that more carefully... :(

Solaris scales multiprocessor systems more efficiently than other UNIX distributions, Linux distributions, and windows.
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Linux scales well past 1000 cores. Just look at the SGI Altix machines.

I haven't seen anyone try that on Solaris.

It's not just the CPUs, it's the I/O you're wanting to scale.
 
The Major Software Company I work for uses Sparc/Solaris exclusively, so I use it everyday. Mostly because the Sun Compiler is best for us and Sun is remarkably fast about fixing linking issues.
 
@dmin said:
We have a Poweredge 2400 with dual Piii and its a joke... You have to remember that oracle is mostly java, which Sun made, which sparc/solaris is optimized for.
Click to expand...

Sorry, that's wrong. The java pieces are the management parts, the DB is native.
 
I've been using a couple of SPARC boxes at work for the past few years. I'm not much more than just an average UNIX user, so I've been struggling to find the best use for these boxes. They (there are 3) are all T2000 boxes, so they have CoolThreads chips. 8 cores, 32 threads, but only 1 FPU. Most of what I do is Java app testing on Tomcat and WebSphere. Only having 1 FPU seems to be what is holding me back when I'm running several instances of a Java app (10 JVMs, each with about 1GB of heap). I'm running Oracle 11 on one of them (it has 32GB of RAM) but they all are stuck using local disk storage. If anyone has any expertise with these chips feel free to chime in. Thanks.
 
Use LOTS of SunOS with SPARC cpus here. ISP in the Caribbean. Used as databases, application servers, DNS, DHCP, etc mostly. Also have a few hyper-V clusters and some VMware stuff. Its all moving to Sun's VM that which can be moved.
 
bobdole369 said:
Use LOTS of SunOS with SPARC cpus here. ISP in the Caribbean. Used as databases, application servers, DNS, DHCP, etc mostly. Also have a few hyper-V clusters and some VMware stuff. Its all moving to Sun's VM that which can be moved.
Click to expand...

You mean Oracle, not Sun. ;)
 
Was glad when we got rid of our last Blades. We still have a couple Ultra Sparcs on odd systems, but for the most part all our Blades were replaced with Dell's running Centos.

I did not like the command line of Solaris as compared to Linux. Primarily vi. Our version of vi didn't let you arrow key past the last character of the line and the delete and backspace button did the same thing.

Those old tower case Ultra Sparcs were built like fuckin tanks though. I think the case and components weighed around 80-100 pounds.

The company I work at built most of the processors for SUN during the early to mid 2000's. Back during Niagra (thats what we called it at least), we had something like 7% yeild per wafer. But we charging SUN like $1000 for each die (chip) so our management was still satisfied with such pitiful yield. The last processor that I saw come through us was the 16 Core Niagra 3, just when AMD and Intel were starting to get cocky about dual core chips.
 
Wow, that's pretty cool. I never realized they had such chips in that time period. :eek:
 
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