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A comment on Sun Leaks 6-core Intel Xeon, Nehalem Details. Parent comment

Re:Sun Leaks 6-core Intel Xeon, Nehalem Details by peterlaurens on Monday February 25, 2008 @07:58PM (#123497)
UltraSPARCs are rather specialised for general purpose processors - one could make the arguments that GPUs, which massively outperform x86 CPUs several times over in terms of FP performance, were faster even than SPARC, but it's very much a different beast.

Also I haven't looked this up but isn't UltraSPARC much more costly?

Basically: Apples and Oranges etc.

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Re:Sun Leaks 6-core Intel Xeon, Nehalem Details by xirium on Monday February 25, 2008 @10:05PM (#123587)
Given the rising cost of energy, companies include it in the cost of ownership. So, if you had a server which was 13.5 times more powerful and consumed the same energy then you'd definitely save money. Unfortunately, SPARC would cost more up-front.

So, for a fast growing company, using x86 may reduce opportunity cost. For a large, steady company, a rolling replacement programme of SPARC may be the best option.

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