Ultra PC 533e
What sets the Ultra PC 533e workstation apart from other Alpha NT workstations is its vendor, Enorex Microsystems. Unlike the other vendors who supplied the Lab with Alpha NT workstations for this series of reviews, Enorex builds Alpha systems exclusively, including servers.
One feature on the Ultra PC 533e that I have not seen on other Alpha systems I've tested is a 120MB 3.5" LS-120 disk drive. The LS-120 drive is backward compatible with existing 1.44MB disks. Enorex plans to make the LS-120 standard equipment on all Enorex Professional series workstations and optional for its Value series workstations. I can't predict this technology's future, but I like the fact that you get a removable storage medium with reasonable capacity without sacrificing an expansion bay.
Otherwise, the Ultra PC 533e is a typical Alpha NT workstation. The PC164SX motherboard uses a Digital Semiconductor-designed 21174 logic processor to interface between the PCI bus and system memory. The Ultra PC 533e has four 128-bit, 168-pin DIMM slots; four PCI slots (two 32-bit and two 64-bit); two ISA slots; 1MB of Level 2 off-chip cache; and a 533MHz 21164 processor. The components on the Enorex system I tested include a 7200rpm 4.5GB Ultra Wide SCSI-3 hard disk, an IntraServer ITI-3140 Ultra Wide SCSI controller, a Toshiba 32X EIDE CD-ROM drive, a 300-watt power supply in an accessible ATX midtower case, 128MB of SDRAM, a NIC, and a Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro video card with 8MB of Synchronous Graphics DRAM (SGDRAM).
You can use the Ultra PC 533e to render 3-D animations, create CAD and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) designs, and perform other tasks requiring spatial analysis. The Diamond FireGL 1000 video card gives this system its 3-D capabilities but limits the scope of 3-D work. The Diamond FireGL 1000 is an entry-level OpenGL-compliant 3-D video card. You can purchase a Diamond FireGL 4000 card for more intensive 3-D renderings and design.
The Diamond FireGL 1000 (and Diamond FireGL 4000) provides direct support for StereoGraphics Corporation's CrystalEyes virtual-reality goggles. The CrystalEyes Goggles connect to the video card through a three-pin round port next to the video-screen connector. The goggles give viewers the 3-D advantage. For example, mechanical engineers can view how a design works before they build a prototype. Scientists can navigate particles on an atomic level better than they can with a 2-D view. DNA researchers can gain a better understanding of the millions of chromosomal threads entwined in a DNA molecule.
To measure the 3-D rendering capabilities of the Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro video card in the Ultra PC 533e workstation, I ran the CDRS, DX, and Lightscape Viewsets. The Ultra PC 533e achieved a score of 22.177 on the CDRS Viewset, 5.577 on the DX Viewset, and 0.419 on the Lightscape Viewset.
To get a good idea of how all the components in the Ultra PC 533e work together, I ran the AIM workstation benchmarks. For these tests, I used a Matrox Millennium II 4MB video card and a monitor resolution of 800 * 600 * 16-bit. The Ultra PC 533e's AIM WNT Peak Performance score was 372.9 application jobs per minute. Its AIM WNT Sustained Performance score was 168.7 application jobs per minute. These values are consistent with the values achieved by the other Alpha workstations I've tested.
Enorex engineers are quick to point out that a version of Corel's Office Suite now exists for the Alpha architecture. Approximately 3000 native Alpha NT applications exist. During a recent vendor visit to the Lab, a vendor representative made it a point to let us know that developing an Alpha version of his company's software was a high priority. Digital may no longer exist, but the Alpha legacy lives on.
End of Article
Prev. page
1
2
[3]
next page -->
