A few pieces of computer news...

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-02-10 02:27pm

And now for something different [at least compared to all the threads on the weekend]

AMD has released their PR3000 Athlon XP based on the Barton core. It actually clocks slower than the PR2800 but has more cache (512kB vs. 256kB L2). It appears to be running neck-and-neck with the P4/3.06GHz, though when HyperTransport is enabled the P4 sometimes pulls ahead.

Apple has updated their XServe rackmount servers. They now sport FireWire800, 1.33GHz PPCs and they appear to be more flexible with regard to expansion than the originals. They have also announced the XServe RAID, which is a FibreChannel storage solution with up to 2.5TB of space. Both utilize ATA hard drives rather than FC/SCSI to lower costs.

Western Digital has announced SATA hard drives @ 10000RPM and a 5-year warrenty.

Sun has some new servers out.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-02-10 02:37pm

I wonder if AMD is gonna get a lot of sales. Corporate spending on PC hardware is pretty low. Most companies are still limping along with Pentium 2 class computers and Windows NT. For most daily work, that still suffices.

Im pretty happy with my AMD chip at home. It was a really good buy. ( Duron 850 ) I will most likely give them more business next time a CPU purchase is in my plans.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-02-10 02:45pm

Yeah, you don't need a lot of computing power to do basic office work, though lots of RAM never hurts.

One city in the area actually used dumb terminals via XFree86 to do all the grunt work, since it's so much cheaper than putting a full-powered machine on every desk.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-02-10 11:53pm

phongn wrote:Yeah, you don't need a lot of computing power to do basic office work, though lots of RAM never hurts.

One city in the area actually used dumb terminals via XFree86 to do all the grunt work, since it's so much cheaper than putting a full-powered machine on every desk.

Its alot easier on the support side as Im sure you know. Nothing sucks more than running around and individually patching each Windows box. Especially ones that are mobile and only spend a little time on the network.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-02-10 11:58pm

IIRC, can't you push patches to machines now? I know some corporations also use Ghost to periodically re-image boxen.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-02-11 12:08am

phongn wrote:IIRC, can't you push patches to machines now? I know some corporations also use Ghost to periodically re-image boxen.

You can if you have everything set up for it. But in my last two companies we where never given the money or training to do so. I took my own initiative to build a ghost library for the Dells so at least when I rebuilt a machine it was fresh and patched as possible.

Thats what sucks about working in smaller companies. A lot of solutions can be ad hoc or bubble gum and bailing wire. On the other hand you get to know everyone and its is a more personal environment.