SUMMARY: Why LX?

From: Bruce Cogan (cogan@merlin.anu.edu.au)
Date: Wed Jan 13 1993 - 21:43:01 CST


Thanks to all who replied to my query:

>Looking through the current Australian Sun price list, I see that the
>Sparcstation LX is priced at A$3000 more than the IPX (each with
>16MB of memory, a 424MB disk, and the same monitor.) The CPU
>performance of the LX is specint92 = 26, specfp = 21. Comparable
>figures for the IPX are 22 and 22.

>Can anyone provide a good reason why I should pay the extra money
>for an LX to be used in a scientific/engineering environment?

I can summarize the replies as follows:

One reply from Switzerland said the LX was cheaper there. The
second said that the IPX was no longer sold there. Replies from
the US and Sweden both reported the LX cheaper.

jdd@cdf.toronto.edu gave a useful summary of the LX's new
features

"Here are the reasons why the LX is more expensive than the IPX:
- LX has onboard ISDN support, IPX doesn't.
- LX has narrow/fast SCSI (max 10MB/sec), IPX has max 5MB/sec SCSI
- LX has 16bit (CD quality) sound, IPX has 8bit (phone quality) sound
- LX has GX+ framebuffer (supports double buffering), IPX has GX
  [In Australia at least the standard LX comes with a GX, the GX+ is
   a A$500 extra]
- LX has onboard 10baseT tranceiver (but needs conversion cable
  for AUI), IPX has only AUI (no conversion cable needed).
- LX has parallel port, IPX doesn't.

Caveats: - The LX only runs Solaris 2.1 aka SunOS 5.1. The IPX supports
           older versions of SunOS (4.1.1 and later) as well. Make sure
           your software runs on 5.1 if you choose the LX
         - SunOS 5.1 doesn't support the LX parallel port, so don't
           expect to use it right away.

Recommendation: unless you really need an LX feature, get the IPX. Save
                your money to upgrade in the future if necessary."

and peterj@swanee.ee.uwa.oz.au adds

 ... the LX has a smaller cache but a wider memory bus...

Thanks to all who replied,

Bruce Cogan Bruce.Cogan@anu.edu.au
Mt Stromlo Observatory Tel. +61 6 249 0232
Australian National University Fax +61 6 249 0233
Private Bag
Weston Creek P.O. , ACT 2611, Australia



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