DayStar Goes Quad

If one or two PowerPC 604e CPUs don't run Photoshop fast enough for you, DayStar Digital's Genesis MP800+ gives you four. Four CPUs don't give four times the performance, but the gain can be significant. Testing with several Photoshop filter operations, I measured speed-ups ranging from 23 to 183 percent over single-processor operation.

DayStar developed the nPower multiprocessing extension to the Mac OS now used by other vendors, including Apple (see "The Mac Goes Multiprocessor," February BYTE). It's not symmetric multiprocessing, though: One processor acts as master a nd distributes tasks to the others. To see a benefit from multiple PowerPCs, an application must use the nPower API.

I tested a Genesis MP800+ with four 200-MHz 604e chips and 128 MB of RAM. It holds up to 1500 MB of system RAM. DayStar sells the MP800+ without memory, hard drive, or keyboard for $9999. At current memory prices, you can get our test configuration (128-MB RAM, 2-GB hard drive, keyboard, and 4-MB graphics card) for around $12,000.

---

Where to Find

DayStar Digital

Flowery Branch, GA
Phone:    (770) 967-2077
Internet: 
http://www.daystar.com/

Circle 1048 on Inquiry Card.

HotBYTEs
 - information on products covered or advertised in BYTE