Subject: SGI Machines

From: "Tom.Huff" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 8:06:00 -0500

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     We are in the process of obtaining some new workstations at Owens 
     Corning and we are going with the configuration recommended by your 
     SGI representative, that is Mips 10k chips, Solid IMPACT Graphics, 128 
     MB RAM and 4GB Hard Disk.
     
     The R4400 chips are older and slower than the R10000 chips.  The 
     standard Spec Integer and Floating Point benchmark tests have just 
     changed so there is not a one to one comparison between the R4400 and 
     R10000 chips.  However, based upon my reading about the Spec 
     benchmarks, I expect that the first R10000 chips will be 2 to 3 times 
     faster than the fastest R4400 chips available.  I have heard from SGI 
     that they have seen speed ups in that range for some computational 
     chemistry programs that they have run in their testing.  The speed 
     increase depends upon the specific type of modeling work that you are 
     doing.
     
     We use Cerius 2 from MSI and are concerned about immediate 
     compatibility.  I have not yet been able to get a firm response from 
     MSI with regard to compatibility with the IRIX 6.2 operating system 
     which will be on the R10000 chips.  I know compatibility testing has 
     been performed.  It is SGI's intent to have binary compatibility 
     between IRIX 6.1 (current operating system) and IRIX 6.2 for all major 
     programs.  Since computational chemistry is a major market for SGI, I 
     am sure they are doing the best they can to insure compatibility.  The 
     worst situation would be to wait for the next release of Cerius 2 
     which MSI has assured us will definitely be compatible with IRIX 6.2
     
     I hope this helps.

     Tom Huff
     [email-masked]