Bill Broadley wrote:
> Please send the previous message back to me, or to the list (it was meant
> to go to the list, as well as you).
Here it comes.
Cheers,
Andy
------------------------------snip------------------------------
> I have made a very rough cost estimation.
> Some of the prices are varying from day to day.
> Others aren't really up-to-date because I couldn't
> get the latest price in time.
> So don't wonder, the price will change but I don't
> know how much.
Rough estimation is appreciated.
> Motherboard w/o RAM and CPU, DM 2000.-- / us$1185.--
> incl. SCSI, serial/parallel,
> FDC, Ethernet, EISA Ctrl. etc.
Do I understand this correctly? us$1185=410+550+40+33+motherboard$$$????
So the motherboard alone cost $152?? (I hope so)
> Video sub board, incl. 2 Meg VRAM DM 700.-- / us$410.--
Does this make sense compared to the nice S3-928 video boards
(probably even eisa) for $300 or so? (the s3 greatly reduces the
load on the bus)
> Audio sub board DM 950.-- / us$550.--
OUCH sounds way to much. 44.1 KHz 16 bit stereo play/record
cost less then $200 for ISA maybe even eisa. Sound boards don't
push the bus very hard.
> Ethernet AUI sub board DM 70.-- / us$40.--
Reasonable.
> Keyboard Ctrl. sub board DM 55.-- / us$33.--
Seems a prime candidate for putting on the motherboard, but it's cheap
either way.
> current CPU prices in qtys of 10:
> (no retail price, this is the price we pay)
>
> R4400PC/50 DM 1647,-- / us$968.--
> R4600-100 DM 839.-- / us$493,--
I have a postscript doc comparing the 4600 to the 4400, and is intended
to guide system designers who wish to do a single system design which can
be used with either the R4200 or the R4600 processor. (sounds like it's
written for us)
sgigate.sgi.com:/pub/doc/r4x00/R4x00_common_design.ps
Heres a quick comparison:
R4600 R4400PC
Cache 16/16 2 way associative 16/16 direct mapped
Cache miss 3 cycles 5-8 cycles.
load latency 2 cycles 3 cycles
Branch latency 2 cycles 4 cycles
Uncached store 4 doublewords (4 addresses) 1 doubleword
doubles as write buffer
Int mult 4 cycles to issue 1 cycle to issue
Int divide 4 cycles to issue 69 cycles to issue
I don't think theres any reason to consider the R4400PC. I think the
R4200 will be VERY important to the affordability of the project. So the
question should be R4200 or R4600?
I believe Drew offered to handle the linux scsi driver for the NCR53cf94
(very nice chip from what I hear) chip if we decided to use it. I'm not
sure this offer still stands.
I ask anyone out there which would be the bigger win?
A: Change the motherboard to use NCR chip and take advantage of Drew's
help?
B: Or leave the motherboard design as is an write our own scsi driver for
this unknown (to me) emulex chip? I worry about the emulex because
I haven't heard of it and linux doesn't support it yet.
I personally could probably afford something more along the lines of a
R4200 ($150) + motherboard ($150) + cheap eisa video ($150) + keyboard $33
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