gcl @
nikko .
com (George Lee) writes:
>Question: What are the PROS and CONS between using an intel box vs.
> UNIX box ? (beside pricing and support)...
Intel boxes are an architecture.
UNIX is an operating system.
Unix can run on a lot of architectures, including Intel boxes.
Gauntlet runs UNIX on an Intel box. You can also buy it on
SPARC boxes and a couple of other architectures. I forget the whole
list.
What I suspect you're asking is whether Intel boxes have
as much horsepower as SPARCs or whatever for building firewalls.
Which raises a lot of questions about cost effectiveness, the kind
of load you are planning on pushing through it, etc. My experience
is that an Intel box running BSDI frequently humiliates much more
expensive Sun workstations at handling network loads. Unless you
have some unique requirement an Intel box is my recommended platform.
That's based on the fact that they can scale up to (easily) ether
to ether speeds, and they are very much a commodity. Most Intel
boxes are CPU-upgradeable and use very cheap components. If you
are concerned about spares or spare parts, it's nice to know that
you can buy an off-the-shelf motherboard, hard disk controller,
or network card replacement at (practially) the grocery store
down the street.
The case where I recommend using a high-end workstation
instead of an Intel box is for sites that already have the
hardware lying around, and who have good maintenance contracts
they want to take advantage of. Also for sites that have a lot
of spare cash they'd rather spend on boxes than on other things.
mjr.
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