Vax 11/780 performance vs Sun 4/280 performance

[Barry Shein]

From: brw at jim.odr.oz (Brian Wallis)
>At the risk of adding to this pointless discussion, why are we
>comparing a 10 year old machine with what I think is the latest Sun.

Mostly because that's how the question was originally posed, something
like "if I replace my 780 with a Sun4/280 will my community be
serviced better/worse/same?"

It's a reasonable question if that's precisely the situation you are
facing as apparently many are. You want to know if the replacement
will work out.

>How about a comparison of the Sun 4/280 and a simmilarly configured
>MicroVax III (Yes thats 3, not 2!). I think they are comparable in
>price, are they in performance (I was quoted 50K aust for a diskless
>MV3 a while ago, what is a sun 4/280 worth?)

A different, reasonable question. I think a Sun4/280 will run a bit
less in list price, but perhaps not so much different as to affect the
comparison (there are other, more important considerations when you're
only talking about price differences on items under US$100K anyhow.)

	-Barry Shein, Boston University