Yes, it has 128 mb RAM and 4 mb cache.
> Why isn't Digital UNIX shipped better tuned for the size of machine DEC
> ships it on?
I can't say. I agree though, DEC UNIX is more at home on medium to large
servers. I bet if you weren't hitting swap it may not so bad.
> > All the while, the interactive performance stays good.
>
> So how much memory does this machine have? Are there some magic kernel
> tuning parameters that will get my machine to behave better?
>
> At least I should have twice as much memory in the AlphaStation soon; we
> bought it with a standard amount of memory since it would be much
> cheaper to buy more from somebody other than DEC.
I bet this makes a huge difference. And yes, since they use standard
SIMMS on the memory board you are probably wiser to go 3rd party.
> > Try to be a little LESS obviously biased when comparing other
> > poor helpless UNIX flavors, hey all of us want Linux to take over
> > but don't kid yourself into thinking it already has.
>
> I don't think I'm being biased at all. I've run a lot of different
> UNIXes on a lot of different machines, and I don't necessarily want to
> use Linux on everything. I just have a hard time believing that a
> machine that seems like it ought to run fast would run so slow, and that
> Digital UNIX seems to be what's eating all the CPU cycles.
I have a hard time believing it as well. You are correct in saying it
is fat, probably this is the problem. At least in my experience with
Solaris, it requires 24 meg of RAM to run with Linux on 16 with X and
still doesn't seem as fast.
If UNIX is eating CPU it must be the swapping. Most of the time my
ps shows %CPU 0.0 VSZ 6.0M [kernel idle] so there is a difference here.
Good luck,
Melvin