Hello,
  I was wondering if anyone read the article about SGI's O2 system
in the Jan 97 issue of BYTE. It compares the single processor
O2 to a dual 200MHz Pentium Pro. The price of the tested SGI
was $8342 while the price of the tested Pentium was $11,432.
The article also quotes that O2 starting prices are below $6000.

  The O2 model they wrote about had 128Mb of RAM, 2 2-Gb
hard drives, and a 180MHz clock. The dual Pentium model also
had an extra 16Mb of something called "Intense 3D".

  The artice compared OpenGl performance. The dual Pentium
performance was only slightly better (for $4000 more). I wonder
about floating point operations though. I would be surprised
if the dual Pentium could perform more quickly in that area,
based on the Pentium Pro and R5000 (O2's CPU) floating point
specifications I've seen/heard.

  I'm wondering what the microscopy community's views are
on the PC vs. UNIX (SGI specifically) issue. Or does anyone
have anymore information on this topic?

  Personally, I was really surprised by the article in BYTE even
though it's only an OpenGl comparison. I had heard about
how the dual Pentium Pro's were going to blow the SGI's out
of the water and at a cheaper price. The hardware alone that is
being bundled with this SGI was a shock given past
SGI prices I've seen (in an academic setting).

Nathan

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