graham@ee.brunel.ac.uk (Graham Carpenter) (07/03/86)
I am posting this article here because I believe it will be of interest to a wider audience than just Sun and IBM PC users. We have just received from our Sun salesman a photocopy of a glossy brochure which describes a 'soon to be available' product. The product is NFS client software for the IBM PC. This allows you to take your PC with say one floppy drive, boot up the NFS, and use the filesystem of any Unix box running as an NFS server as if it were an MS-DOS hard disk on your PC. To quote from the glossy: ".... PC-NFS includes mechanisms that map NFS filenames to MS-DOS filenames. This name mapping allows MS-DOS utilities and applications to manipulate any files on an NFS server...... PC applications, batch files, system utilities can operate unchanged on NFS files, no new command language or programming interfaces are involved." PC-NFS also includes telnet so you can use the PC as a vt100 terminal, and also traps print calls and saves output for spooling to a network printer. The software is currently written to use Sun's own ethernet card for the PC. Since most US written software tends to get released over there before it reaches the UK, is anyone out there already using this product? If so, would someone please post a review of the software and give some idea of the cost of the software and hardware. Also I'd be interested to know if any of the ethernet card manufacturers are implementing the same software for their boards, and when we may expect to see the software available. In the same glossy brochure there is a description of a (less interesting to me) product called SUN IPC (Sun's Integrated Personal Computer). This is a co-processor board for the Sun which contains an 80287 processor 1.2 Megs of memory and the hardware to drive a floppy disk (the disk itself is optional), and allows you, amongst other things, to open an 'MS-DOS' window in Suntools and run MS-DOS applications which use the AT colour graphics adapter, the AT mono adapter or the Hercules mono adaptor. Any comments on this product? -- /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Graham J Carpenter. | | | Dept of Electrical Engineering | ARPA: graham%ee.brunel.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa | | and Electronics | | | Brunel University | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!ee.brunel.ac.uk!graham | | Uxbridge | | | UB8 3PH | VOICE: +44 895 74000 Ext 2849 | | UNITED KINGDOM | | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
guy@sun.UUCP (07/05/86)
> The software is currently written to use Sun's own ethernet card for the PC. "Sun's own ethernet card"? We don't make Ethernet cards for the PC. PC-NFS works with the 3Com Ethernet card (model 3C501, according to some information here), which we will sell you as part of a package along with the software. If you already have that card, you can just buy the software. > Since most US written software tends to get released over there before it > reaches the UK, is anyone out there already using this product? If so, would > someone please post a review of the software and give some idea of the cost > of the software and hardware. The software was just announced in the US as well; I think the people who already have it are beta test users. > Also I'd be interested to know if any of the ethernet card manufacturers are > implementing the same software for their boards, and when we may expect to > see the software available. It supports the 3Com card. I don't know if there are plans to support any other cards; however, the bulk of the software is probably not the part that talks to the Ethernet card, since you also have to provide IP, UDP (for NFS), TCP (for Telnet), RPC, NFS, and a command-language interface. I don't know how much work would be involved in providing support for other cards. -- Guy Harris {ihnp4, decvax, seismo, decwrl, ...}!sun!guy guy@sun.com (or guy@sun.arpa)
graham@ee.brunel.ac.uk (Graham Carpenter) (07/07/86)
Sorry if this is repeated but we've had some problems with UUCP and I don't know if this got out before. I am posting this article here because I believe it will be of interest to a wider audience than just Sun and IBM PC users. We have just received from our Sun salesman a photocopy of a glossy brochure which describes a 'soon to be available' product. The product is NFS client software for the IBM PC. This allows you to take your PC with say one floppy drive, boot up the NFS, and use the filesystem of any Unix box running as an NFS server as if it were an MS-DOS hard disk on your PC. To quote from the glossy: ".... PC-NFS includes mechanisms that map NFS filenames to MS-DOS filenames. This name mapping allows MS-DOS utilities and applications to manipulate any files on an NFS server...... PC applications, batch files, system utilities can operate unchanged on NFS files, no new command language or programming interfaces are involved." PC-NFS also includes telnet so you can use the PC as a vt100 terminal, and also traps print calls and saves output for spooling to a network printer. The software is currently written to use Sun's own ethernet card for the PC. Since most US written software tends to get released over there before it reaches the UK, is anyone out there already using this product? If so, would someone please post a review of the software and give some idea of the cost of the software and hardware. Also I'd be interested to know if any of the ethernet card manufacturers are implementing the same software for their boards, and when we may expect to see the software available. In the same glossy brochure there is a description of a (less interesting to me) product called SUN IPC (Sun's Integrated Personal Computer). This is a co-processor board for the Sun which contains an 80287 processor 1.2 Megs of memory and the hardware to drive a floppy disk (the disk itself is optional), and allows you, amongst other things, to open an 'MS-DOS' window in Suntools and run MS-DOS applications which use the AT colour graphics adapter, the AT mono adapter or the Hercules mono adaptor. Any comments on this product? -- /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Graham J Carpenter. | | | Dept of Electrical Engineering | ARPA: graham%ee.brunel.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa | | and Electronics | | | Brunel University | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!ee.brunel.ac.uk!graham | | Uxbridge | | | UB8 3PH | VOICE: +44 895 74000 Ext 2849 | | UNITED KINGDOM | | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
graham@ee.brunel.ac.uk (Graham Carpenter) (07/07/86)
> This is a > co-processor board for the Sun which contains an 80287 processor 1.2 Megs of Sorry! I meant to say 80286 -- /------------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | Graham J Carpenter. | | | Dept of Electrical Engineering | ARPA: graham%ee.brunel.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa | | and Electronics | | | Brunel University | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!ee.brunel.ac.uk!graham | | Uxbridge | | | UB8 3PH | VOICE: +44 895 74000 Ext 2849 | | UNITED KINGDOM | | \------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
landauer@sun.uucp (Doug Landauer) (07/09/86)
In article <346@brueer.ee.brunel.ac.uk>, Graham Carpenter writes: >In the same glossy brochure there is a description of a ... >product called SUN IPC (Sun's Integrated Personal Computer). This is a >co-processor board for the Sun which contains an 80287 processor 1.2 Megs of - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ^ >memory and the hardware to drive a floppy disk (the disk itself is optional), >and allows you, amongst other things, to open an 'MS-DOS' window in Suntools >and run MS-DOS applications which use the AT colour graphics adapter, the AT >mono adapter or the Hercules mono adaptor. Any comments on this product? To deconfuse some of you out there, that's a (10-MHz) 80286 in there. The 80287 (floating point coprocessor chip) is optional. -- Doug Landauer {ihnp4, amdahl, decwrl, seismo, ..}!sun!landauer landauer@sun.arpa
guy@sun.UUCP (07/11/86)
> Sorry if this is repeated but we've had some problems with UUCP and I don't > know if this got out before. Yup, it got out before. I shall repost an earlier correction: > The software is currently written to use Sun's own ethernet card for the PC. Sun doesn't have an Ethernet card for the PC. The software was written for the 3Com Ethernet card. We will sell you that card, but it's not ours, it's 3Com's. -- Guy Harris {ihnp4, decvax, seismo, decwrl, ...}!sun!guy guy@sun.com (or guy@sun.arpa)