Subject: Re: Fastest NetBSD 68k computer?
To: Mason Loring Bliss <mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us>
From: Colin Wood <cwood@ichips.intel.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 02/25/1998 09:10:39
Mason Loring Bliss wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 24, 1998 at 11:34:23PM -0500, Josh Hope wrote:
> 
> > Does anyone know how fast the Amiga 060's are? Perhaps *they* are the
> > fastest NetBSD 68k computers :)
> 
> While we're on the edge of being on-topic, two things come to mind.
> 
> Well, okay - only one thing. Hardware doesn't really matter a whole lot,
> in most cases. I've started running NetBSD on a couple Intel machines, and
> it's really the same stuff. It wasn't like switching to the Other Side -
> it involved using everything I already use, but having it all move faster.

Pretty much, yes :-)
 
> Folks are talking about getting $750 and $800 Quadra 840AVs when it ought
> to be possible to get near 200mHz and copious RAM in an Intel machine for
> the same price. Just a thought. It's not like the software you're going to
> be running is any different, and there's always the bonus of not having to
> keep around a partition for the sole purpose of running a booter.

Definitely.

> That said, maybe I've just been unlucky, but it seems that hardware just
> isn't as nice on the Intel side of the world. I have yet to find a keyboard
> as nice as my Apple Extended II. All the PC keyboards I've tried feel like
> they're going to fall apart in the next hard wind.

Well, I think that barring the blasphemous placement of the capslock key
on the extended keyboard, it is one of the best keyboards I have ever
used.  However, if you go high-end enough in the PC world, you will find
better keyboards.  My dual Pentium Pro box by IBM at work has a pretty
nice keyboard (although it's capslock is in the wrong place, too).

> Sorry 'bout wasting the bandwidth. (Incidentally, it's rather shocking to
> find myself advocating the use of Intel-based hardware. Oh well... Running
> a 40mHz 486 with twenty megs of RAM is just nice, when compared to my SE/30
> running with eight megs of RAM. Kernel compiles are down to under an hour
> and a half now, from seven. :)

Well, I was pretty shocked when it happened to me :-)  Just imagine how
fast a Pentium II processor would be.  I've seen posts talking about
building the entire system in a couple of hours.  Wow!

Later.

-- 
Colin Wood                                 cwood@ichips.intel.com
Component Design Engineer - MD6                 Intel Corporation
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I speak only on my own behalf, not for my employer.