Re: MicroVAX 3100/20 is apocalyptically slow even with 32MB of RAM

[John Klos <john%klos.com@localhost>]

> I have a MicroVAX 3100/20 with 32MB of RAM that once ran NetBSD many 
> years ago. I recently had occasion to replace its disk and install 10.1, 
> and it is superlatively slower than I remember it being. It?s so slow 
> that it?s been trying to just bootstrap pkgsrc for about a week now, 
> with pauses to allow the daily cron script to complete otherwise it 
> won?t complete in less than 24 hours. The system time loses about 10-15 
> minutes a day, presumably because it can?t keep up with the clock 
> interrupts. This is after I copied the GENERIC kernel config, stripped 
> out all of the VAX models and devices that weren?t needed, and stripped 
> out all of the RAM-based filesystems.

I have a VAXstation 4000/30 that has a defective CPU cache. Because of 
this, it benchmarks quite similarly to a 5 MHz 11/780, even though it runs 
at 25 MHz. I wonder if your cache isn't getting turned on correctly, or if 
your cache is failing...

> I don?t think RAM is the issue because I haven?t seen it go above 
> 12-14MB active in top. It uses more swap than it does RAM.
>
> Is there something configuration-wise I should try, or is this model 
> just too slow to be supported anymore?

Your machine should be at least half as fast as my fully working 
VAXstation VLC. I'm running NetBSD 11, and it really isn't any slower than 
NetBSD 9 or 10. Do you know what version of NetBSD you had on it many 
years ago?

John