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Re: Install and RAID



On Sun, Jan 28, 2001 at 09:42:30AM +1100, Glenn McGrath wrote:
> Michael Neuffer wrote:
> > Why do you think IBM is still successful with their Mainframes ?
> > They do not have that much CPU power, but they can process an
> > enormous amount of IO. How do you think they accomplish this ?
> > By offloading the IO to IO processors.
> > 
> So you think mainframes are a good long term growth industry ?

No, but mainframe-like mega-IO systems such as EMC and NetApp are.  

> > The hardware RAID controller, at least one that is worthy of this name
> > is just that (only smaller). An intelligent IO subsystem that offloads
> > complexity from the main system and lets it do what it is supposed to.
> > 
> > For me somebody that argues like you, is also somebody who thinks
> > that Winmodems are the best thing since sliced bread.
> > 
> hmm, nice analogy (but no i dont like hardware i cant use), i think what
> it comes down to is computing power, the best value for money components
> will always be those that are have the highest volumes.
> There is a sweet spot, high powered stuff has a higher prcie/performance
> ratio, but so does lower power stuff, hard drives especially (where
> performance is size).

No, size is only part of performance.

> Maybe it would help you if you considered a server built with standard
> consumer components to be one fancy hardware raid device.

Maybe it would help if you considered the fact that when designing a storage
subsystem or SAN, most people are thinking about the data that their business
depends on, and not their MP3's.

> Ever heard of google ? If mainframes and "special" hardware are so good,
> given their high IO demands they should dump the thousands of "CHEAP"
> computers that can successfully handle high IO and get a mainframe from
> IBM.

I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't see how this fits into this discussion.  You
seem to imply that google is using distributed computing for its processing,
but we are talking about storage here.  I highly doubt that google is storing
all of their data using Linux kernel RAID.

--Adam

-- 
Adam McKenna  <adam@debian.org>  <adam@flounder.net>



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