( ESNUG 291 Item 3 ) ----------------------------------------------- [5/27/98]
From: Peter.Denyer@Eng.Sun.COM ( Peter Denyer )
Subject: Bad Assumption, Cooley -- UNIX Boxes Are No Longer That Expensive!
John:
As you previously wrote in EE Times:
"Earlier this year, I wrote a column mocking the hoopla Synopsys raised
about porting its tools to Windows NT." (see March 2, page 60) "We
already have lots of Unix boxes, know Unix pretty damn intimately and
have a zillion man-hours invested in Unix-based scripts. OK, so PC
hardware is 75 percent cheaper, but we'll have to climb an ugly learning
curve to use NT well, and porting our hard-earned scripts will be a royal
pain. And either way, EDA software pricing stays the same ... Sounds
like a wash to me."
The "75% cheaper" is an out of date assumption, I think. With the entry
price of an Ultra 5 sitting at $2495, I'd say that an adequately configured
NT box and Ultra/Solaris box are about the same price these days and times.
So, with the software the same price and the platform price just about the
same, the issues seem to come down whose machine is the most stable for
doing those "mission critical" EDA jobs. I lean towards Solaris as an
answer. Of course, I am biased by definition, but with 90% of the new EDA
license revenue going to UNIX, I think a substantial piece of the EDA market
agrees.
Arguments abound as to which platform an engineer should use, but I think a
simple answer is that what ever machine helps you get quality product out of
the door fastest might be a way to think about it.
- Peter Denyer
Sun Microsystems
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