The new SparcStation 5 is a competitive low-cost workstation. The SparcStation 20 presents a more complex picture.
Eric Garland
In March, Sun Microsystems revamped its line of SPARC processor-based Unix workstations. Two new series are the multiprocessor-capable SparcStation 20 series, a redesign of the SparcStation 10 series that it replaces, and the SparcStation 5 series, low-priced workstations based on Sun's new MicroSparc II processor. The new SparcStation 20 series includes models geared toward multimedia and accelerated 2-D and 3-D graphics. Sun has discontinued the SparcStation 10 and lowered the price of its low-end model, the SparcClassic. Prices now range from $2995 for a no-frills SparcClassic to $29,995 or more for a four-processor model of the SparcStation 20.
The new SparcStations represe
nt significant speed increases over previous models, but the workstation market is competitive. Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC line and Silicon Graphics' Mips-based computers have tested faster than Sun's machines and are cutting into Sun's sales. Still, Sun held nearly half the workstation market last year, and many people will find the new systems of interest: There's something to be said for reliability and a large base of applications. With the SparcStation 20, you can also increase performance with multiple processors. In this review, I look at one of Sun's new high-end SparcStation 20 models and the more cost-effective SparcStation 5.
New SparcStations
Sun offers the SparcStation 20 with up to four 50-MHz or two 60-MHz SuperSparc processors (see the text box ``Dual SuperSparcs''). The base system comes with one processor, a 535-MB hard drive, a 17-inch color monitor, and 32 MB of RAM for $12,195. You get your choice of 8-bit 2-D/3-D wireframe graphics or 24-bit accelerated graphics and imaging.
I tested a SparcStation 20M, a model geared toward multimedia; it has the same components as other SparcStation 20 models but adds videoconferencing capabilities. The review unit arrived with a single 50-MHz chip. The $18,843 test configuration also included two 535-MB hard drives, 64 MB of RAM, 1 MB of RAM cache, and a 20-inch 1280- by 1024-pixel color monitor.
All SparcStation 20 models come with a microphone and 16-bit audio. The 20M adds accelerated video playback, video capture and compression, a video camera, videoconferencing software, and Photo CD support. The standard built-in networking combined with video and audio features makes the SparcStation 20M a prime platform for desktop videoconferencing. With the exception of the videoconferencing software, however, the package doesn't provide utilities or tools to take full advantage of the computer's multimedia potential.
The high-quality 20-inch monitor provides a very stable, readable image. A wireless remote control makes it easy to mak
e all screen adjustments while staying a comfortable distance from the monitor--very elegant.
The SparcStation 5 base model was designed to be inexpensive. For the $3995 base price, you get a 535-MB hard drive, a 15-inch color monitor, and 16 MB of RAM. The $7745 SparcStation 5 I tested came with 32 MB of RAM, a 17-inch Sony monitor, and hardware and software for videoconferencing. The system I tested had a 70-MHz MicroSparc II processor. Higher-end models based on an 85-MHz MicroSparc II start at $9595 with 32 MB of RAM, a 17-inch color monitor, and 1 GB of hard drive storage.
Both new SparcStations come in the same well-designed case, and you can turn a SparcStation 5 into a SparcStation 20 with a simple motherboard swap. The SparcStation 20 system board has four 32-bit SBus expansion slots (two were free in the test machine) and two 64-bit MBus slots to hold SuperSparc processor cards. Each card can hold one or two processors. Using 64-MB SIMMs, you can put up to 512 MB of memory on the mothe
rboard. The SparcStation 5 motherboard provides three SBus expansion slots and eight SIMM slots, each of which can hold up to 32 MB, for a maximum of 256 MB.
For either SparcStation, you open the case by removing two screws from the back, one of which is the grounding screw. This spring-loaded screw is held in place so that you can't lose it. When you attach a locking cable to the case, it blocks removal of the other screw, preventing access to the inside of the machine.
The inside is well laid out, with room for two internal hard drives and two removable-media drives. The hard drives are cleverly mounted in plastic caddies that make upgrading simple. The caddy handle, when down, locks the drive into place. When you swing the handle up, it levers the drive out of its connector so you can simply lift it out. Sun offers external SCSI devices that can expand the storage capacity of the computer to up to 138.6 GB for the SparcStation 20 and 42 GB for the SparcStation 5.
Both SparcStations cam
e with a full array of ports on the back panel, including ports for 10Base-T Ethernet (AUI [attachment unit interface] optional), SCSI-2, IBM/Centronics parallel adapter, serial (two), audio in and out, video input (two), S-Video input, and keyboard. The optical mouse plugs into the side of the keyboard, reducing cable tangle.
SPARC Performance
BYTE's Unix benchmarks provide a measure of Sun's CPU progress. The Arithmetic and Dhrystone results for the SparcStation 20 with a single processor showed that the new system had approximately five times the performance of the SparcStation 1+. File copy showed a dramatic improvement, with a speed index of 15; the improvement is somewhat due to better hard drive performance, but more so to caching. The Execl test actually ran slower on the SparcStation 20 than on the original SparcStation, due to the overhead inherent in Solaris 2.3. The Pipes test was the only other test to rely heavily on the operating system and thus showed only minor improvement.
SPECint92 results from Sun show the 20M test unit's 50-MHz SuperSparc processor scoring like a 90-MHz Pentium. The SuperSparc's SPECfp92 score is about 35 percent faster than the same Pentium. BYTE's native-performance benchmarks painted a dimmer performance picture, indicating that the SparcStation 20 had roughly two-thirds the integer performance and 50 percent better floating-point performance than a 66-MHz 486. Keep in mind that the native-performance tests are affected by the quality of the C compiler used for each platform. Still, these numbers put the single-processor SparcStation 20 at a performance disadvantage relative to workstations based on DEC's Alpha, Mips's RS-4400, and HP's PA-RISC chips.
The SparcStation 5 did better than you would expect from the SPEC numbers for the MicroSparc II processor. The SparcStation 5 came out only 15 percent slower than the SparcStation 20 on the BYTE Unix benchmarks, in spite of the fact that the SPECint for the MicroSparc II is about 25 percent slower t
han that for the SuperSparc. The SparcStation 5 even pulled ahead in the Dhrystone portion of the test.
Solaris
SparcStations have a huge following of people who not only own the computers but know them inside and out. If you're not among them, the Solaris operating system that runs on the Sun computers is complex, with a steep learning curve. It has many intricacies that aren't standard Unix.
I was stumped, for example, when I tried to hook up an external Sun CD-ROM drive. The driver file for the CD-ROM drive didn't exist. After much head-scratching and searching with help commands, I discovered that I had to shut down the computer and, while outside the operating system, do a BOOT -R command. The system then rebooted, found the attached CD-ROM drive, and created the files necessary to access it. It's easy once you know how, but it's not nearly as convenient as on some other workstations I've used, where you plug in a SCSI device and turn on the computer, and it automatically mounts.
There are also two significantly different versions of Solaris, 1.x and 2.x. Solaris 1.1.1 is the most current of the former version and still ships with many Sun systems along with the new version, 2.3. There are good reasons for this. One is the 5000 or so applications written for the old Solaris that don't work with the new one. Another is familiarity. If you know the old Solaris, configuring the new one is painful because the operating-system data structures are different. The new kernel is also bigger than the old one. But 2.3 is a strong server operating system, supports multiprocessor machines, and can now claim 2500 applications, including all the biggies.
OpenWindows, the Solaris windowing system, is poorly linked to the rest of the system. With both SGI and HP workstations, you conveniently boot up right into the windowing system. With Solaris, you must boot up and log in through a full-screen text mode and then run OpenWindows on top of the text-mode session, much like the DOS/Windows com
bination. Worse, when leaving OpenWindows, you aren't warned if you have unsaved changes in some document--a fault common to other Unix systems.
Solaris's strong points are stability and a large applications base. Compared to its competition, however, Solaris has a long way to go as far as ease of use and integrating its windowing environment are concerned.
Solaris 2.4 should be out about the time you read this. According to Sun, 2.4 will provide easy-to-use graphical administration tools as well as a common environment for the 80x86-based Solaris and the Solaris that runs on the SparcStations, but it will provide little else in the way of significant features.
Still King?
Sun is still the king of Unix workstations. Although SparcStations don't have the processor speed of their competitors, don't count them out yet. Sun has made considerable advances in multiprocessor and threading technologies that will be the cornerstone of the distributed systems of the future--although the comp
any is still proving their usefulness for today's applications. If Sun has fallen behind in speed, faster SPARC processors are right around the corner.
The SuperSparc II processor is sampling now and should ship early next year. Sun expects the 100-MHz SuperSparc II to be 85 percent faster than a 50-MHz SuperSparc, although it still won't be the fastest processor around. However, Sun's UltraSparc may be. This is a full-blown, 64-bit chip that should be more than three times faster than the 50-MHz SuperSparc. It should be available in quantity by the second quarter of 1995.
Considering its price, the SparcStation 5 is a good, fast machine and deserves consideration even for high-end use. The SparcStation 20 series provides more speed and expandability, but it's less competitive when you look at just price and performance. If you forgo Solaris 1.x applications, then running multiple processors under Solaris 2.3 can more than make up for the performance shortcomings of the SparcStation 20's CPU. Ho
w much more depends on your own particular mix of applications.
The Facts
SparcStation 20M..............$18,843
(test configuration with 64 MB of RAM, two 535-MB hard drives, 20-inch color monitor, and videoconferencing options)
SparcStation 5................$7745
(test configuration with 32 MB of RAM, 535-MB hard drive, 17-inch color monitor, and videoconferencing options)
Sun Microsystems Computer Corp.
2550 Garcia Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94043
(800) 821-4643
(415) 960-1300
fax: (415) 969-9131
Benchmark Results
The Unix tests show that Sun's current SPARC systems are several times faster than the SparcStation 1+. The native performance tests indicate that they're hardly faster than a 66-MHz 486 system.
BYTE UNIX BENCHMARK
SPARCSTATION 5 SPARCSTATION 20M
Arithmetic 5.9 8.3
Dhrystone 5.2 4.6
Execl 0.7 0.7
File Cop
y 12.4 15.0
Pipe 1.7 2.3
BYTE NATIVE-PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS
SPARCSTATION 5 SPARCSTATION 20
Integer index 0.67 0.72
Floating-point index 1.07 1.49
All benchmark results are indexed relative to the performance of a baseline machine. The Unix benchmarks are indexed to a Sun SparcStation 1+ running SunOS 4.1.3. The native-performance benchmarks are indexed to a 66-MHz 486. For each individual test, the baseline machine's index = 1.0.
Photograph: The SparcStation 5 (left) starts at $3995. The SparcStation 20M (right) starts at $14,590 and can run up to four SuperSparc processors.
Eric Garland (Hancock, NH) has been using and programming computers for 12 years. He is currently enthralled by Unix. You can reach him on the Internet or BIX at
editors@bix.com
.
SparcStation Overhaul
