SparcStation Performance

[surfer]

>> We've also noticed that the SparcStation becomes quite slow when someone
>> is doing nothing more than editing a file on the console (slow to the
>> point that vi acts like the load average is up around 10 or so when it is
>> actually less than one).

>This was one of the first things we noticed when we first received a
>SparcStation. If the console user wasn't using X or Suntools then none of
>the other users could get any reasonable response out of the machine. We
>suspected that this has something to do with the device driver for the
>console display. Could it be that the default device driver is very
>inefficient but that the time used to access the device does not show up
>in a 'ps' ?

As the sole user of our SS-1GX (8Mb, 2*100 Mb internal drives), I have
noticed no performance problems excpet those incurred by having only 8Mb
RAM and running OpenWindows or Sunview and doing useful work (sci.viz.
code development).  I suppose that I am to blame partially for this (any
cores dumped tend to run >9Mb).  The window systems run great (except for
pswm crashing if it gets behind in the input queue), and I feel as if I'm
working on my apple II+ when I am forced to return to using my old Sun
3/60.

Appearing again:
-John West-				 elvis at athena.ee.msstate.edu  	
MADEM Project **** Research Center for Advanced Scientific Computing
Mississippi State University
P.O. Drawer EE				      (601) 325-8234 (voice)
Mississippi State, MS 39762		      (601) 325-2298   (fax)
USA
........the opinions presented here are those of the King..........