RE: Mac is the AS/400 of Desktop Computing per Dvorak

On Wed, 19 Jun 2002, Konrad Underkofler wrote:

> Can a $7K machine actually kick a 270's butt? I would
> love to see the Linux 270 and the Xserver in a match :)
> PCI to PCI, PowerPc to PowerPc, Java to Java winner take
> all.

I'm definately no hardware expert but I'd put my money on the $7K machine
when betting on performance (i.e. speed).  But of course I'd want to know
what the tests were going to be.  If the test is 3D performance, of course
the Mac wins since there is no such thing on the iSeries.  For CPU
intensive operations I still bet on the Mac.  For large i/o tasks, I'm not
too sure.  The iSeries isn't a particularly fast machine (it seems to me -
and I'm not just looking at cpu clock speeds).  You pay for its longevity.

Plus on the iSeries linux doesn't run on the bare metal, it runs in an
LPAR.  I don't know how much of a performance hit this is.

James Rich