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The Return of the Sun Workstation, With AMD's Help
Hack Jandy writes "Would you be surprised to hear Sun is the lowest cost Tier 1 dual-Opteron provider? AnandTech benchmarks Sun's newest w2100z and includes some sneak peaks at Solaris 10 and Java Desktop System 2. The biggest surprise at the end - it costs less than IBM and HP's configurations. Has Sun learned from the demise of SGI workstations that relying on one processor architecture is harmful?" CrzyP adds "They perform various benchmarks including 2D/3D rendering, compiling, encryption, and thermal and noise performance, and compare the 64-bit Sun box with various other configurations, including varying operating systems."
Oh, wait, it's a conspiracy. Because RISC is a panacea of goodness. Because X86 isn't just an instruction set, and there is no possibility of a middle ground using good ideas from many camps.
Of course not. The world is black and white, and because Intel came up with it, X86 is OBVIOUSLY black, everything else is white.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
You obviously haven't tried Mac OS X on a G4 or G5.
The difference in the experience is largely due to the vector processing support.
I'd take a PowerPC at half the clock-rate of an Intel, ANY day (specifically, the day that I can afford my own iMac G5, although earlier is acceptable if anyone is feeling particularly charitable).