A modern $400 MIPS workstation for a modern (government) era (2020)

https://virtuallyfun.com/2020/09/24/a-modern-risc-workstation-for-a-modern-government-era/

by lproven • 3 years ago

3 5 3 years ago

I'm hoping to pull it out of storage and give it an update. There is newer processors, although they are still about the same price, and I'm not sure it's all that worth it.

brucehoult2• 3 years ago

Interesting. $500. Quad core 1.8 GHz, 40W. Quite a large 8MB L3 cache.

Just for yucks I ran the BYTE UNIX benchmarks 5.1.3 (same as they used) on my 4 GB VisionFive 2 (RISC-V quad core 1.5 GHz dual issue in-order CPU similar to Arm A55) which I paid $49 for on the Kickstarter.

Sadly I can't see how to correlate the results to their graph. They say they rescaled some results :-( According to the README the baseline is a SPARCstation 20-61 (60 MHz?) which is set to 10.0 for each benchmark.

    System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
    Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0    5602579.7    480.1
    Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       1433.4    260.6
    Execl Throughput                                 43.0       1832.2    426.1
    File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     203687.5    514.4
    File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0      67413.7    407.3
    File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0     363829.1    627.3
    Pipe Throughput                               12440.0     391228.8    314.5
    Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0      42404.5    106.0
    Process Creation                                126.0       2086.5    165.6
    Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4       2900.7    684.1
    Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0       1253.5   2089.1
    System Call Overhead                          15000.0     740463.6    493.6
                                                                       ========
    System Benchmarks Index Score                                         416.6

I found a Pi 4 result online https://gist.github.com/lonelyion/41c12fbc3d0bd6dfbe94062574...

    System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
    Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0   10096040.6    865.1
    Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       2389.1    434.4
    Execl Throughput                                 43.0        927.1    215.6
    File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     114719.5    289.7
    File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0      31989.5    193.3
    File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0     323307.3    557.4
    Pipe Throughput                               12440.0     162501.6    130.6
    Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0      49867.6    124.7
    Process Creation                                126.0       1872.7    148.6
    Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4       2535.2    597.9
    Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0        768.3   1280.5
    System Call Overhead                          15000.0     488198.2    325.5
                                                                       ========
    System Benchmarks Index Score                                         327.6

lproven2• 3 years ago

[Submitter here]

I think -- but do not know -- that the key thing here is that this is a Chinese made chip on a Chinese made motherboard with a Chinese chipset. And, of course, they have the source code to all the software, because it's FOSS.

It doesn't matter if the performance is great and even less the price/performance. All that matters is it works and it's usable.

So, if -- for instance -- the PRoC invaded and annexed Taiwan and all the silicon fabs in Taiwan were suddenly unusable, the rest of the world would suddenly have a big problem. No more AMD CPUs, supply problems with Arm SoCs, and RAM and flash and chipsets, so even if you could still get Intel CPUs, without readily available RAM and so on, the ROTW couldn't build cheap mass-market PCs any more.

But PRoC could.

Which makes the invasion of Taiwan a much better bet. It'd hurt China but not as much as it would hurt everyone else.

And since now the West is distracted from Ukraine by Hamas-v-Israel, Russia is getting away with it. That makes PRoC-v-RoC even more likely.

That even brings Korean War II into sight over the horizon.

:-(

brucehoult2• 3 years ago

now the West is distracted from Ukraine by Hamas-v-Israel

Media, perhaps. No one else is. Hamas is a tiny sideshow. The Kremlin wants people to think the West is distracted.

Note that TSMC has (or is building) fabs in USA and Germany. I think an invasion of Taiwan is far less likely now than it was 2+ years ago, but if it did happen it would reduce TSMC's production capacity, not eliminate it. They'd just have to prioritise the important stuff and put iPhone production on hold.

A modern $400 MIPS workstation for a modern (government) era (2020)

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