Re: Advantages of 64-bit vs 32-bit on old hardware

[Greg Earle <earle%isolar.dyndns.org@localhost>]

raymond.meyer%rambler.ru@localhost wrote:
> On Wednesday 12 March 2008 02:46:11 Greg Earle wrote:
> > I think a better question is, "Are there any particular advantages of
> > such old hardware?"
> >
> > You can find a (single CPU) 450 MHz Ultra 60 with 1 GB of RAM, a CD-ROM
> > drive and a 9 GB disk on eBay for US $95.  I cannot fathom for the life
> > of me why anyone in their right mind would run anything older/slower,
> > except out of pure masochism.
>
> Well my Ultra 10 is 440MHz, so not that much slower than Ultra 60.

Can you add a 2nd CPU module to it?  Can you increase the RAM past
1 GB?  Thought not.  My dual Ultra 60 with 2 GB would blow your
Ultra 10 into the weeds (relatively speaking).

At least an Ultra 60 is expandable.

And it's the last of the (read: quality) "old Suns".

> Why spend money on new hardware when old hardware is much cheaper and does 
> everything I need.

Why not have old hardware that is cheaper, does everything you need
but isn't dog slow to boot?

I consider an Ultra 60 to be "old hardware", don't you?

A dual-450 MHz Ultra 60 would make a great low-end NetBSD platform
and it's ridiculously cheap to boot.  Besides that US $95 Ultra 60
base I mentioned earlier, you can also buy a pair of 450 MHz CPUs
for US $20, right now.

That gives you a dual-450 Ultra 60 (with a spare CPU left over for
failure/backup parts) for all of US $115.  Heck, for that matter,
you can put together a dual-CPU Sun Blade 2000 with disk and memory
for under US $400 these days.

I just can't take people that crab about running 64-bit binaries
on slow old hardware seriously when non-slow hardware is that
cheap nowadays.

"It took only 3 days to build KDE3, Koffice, the GIMP and a bunch
of other software"!  Wow!  Only 3 days!  You've gotta be kidding me.

Anyway, I apologize, this is getting off-topic.

It's too bad NetBSD/SPARC64 SMP and 64-bit software in general are
still Not Ready For Prime Time.  Someone give the All Clear when I
can replace my Ultra 60's OS with NetBSD.  Until then, mine's gonna
keep slogging along with ol' Slowlaris 9.

Meanwhile, back to my lurker hole.

        - Greg