From: htoaster@yabbs
To: skippy@yabbs
Subject: re: x86 Unices multi-user perfo
Date: Thu Feb 24 00:30:48 1994

In message re: x86 Unices multi-user perfo, skippy said:
> there is a bbs, Eagles Nest, which runs on a 486-25.  it is also 
> a regular user machine on the campus where it resides....
> 
> btw... what kinda machine is phred?

486sx/25 :)...

here is the hardware and software setup:
  486sx/25, 8k cache, none external (gotta buy some oneday)
  16 megs of memory
  380 megs of disk (250+130)
  3com 3c503 ethernet card (for net connection)
plus lots of unimportant stuff so I can use it (monitor, video, etc)

software is NetBSD 0.9 (pretty much stock, with a few kernel hacks I've
done).  To give you an idea of system load, during the last 15 minutes
the load average has gone between 0.16 and 1.11, sitting around 0.50
most of the time.  Currently there are about 20 users online.

A 486 really is a fast system, its just that when you start trying to
emulate dos (like windows and os/2 do) you spend so much time worrying
about hardware emulation that the machine justs gets bogged down.  Running
a "true" os like unix (this is a religious issue, lets not argue about
it) really does let you do a lot more with the hardware.  For the most
part I don't notice yabbs when it is running (this has been changing recently
w/ all of the new people coming on and the associated flooding), even
though I do lots of work on it as well (lots of compiling, and I'm sitting
in X windows about 30% of the time).

Comparison wise I notice very little difference between this machine
and a Decstation 5000.

alex