jackson@nadc.ARPA (03/05/85)
Has anyone out there had any experiences with a new Systems Industries product call SIMACS or Systems Industries Multiple Access Controller system? Their documentation claims of allowing up to 8 CPUS sharing up to 8 disks. SI also claims support for Berkeley 4.2 and Bell System V Unix. Thanks in advance, jackson@nadc SIMACS is a trademark of Systems Industries. Unix is a trademark of the Bell System.
young@AMES-NAS.ARPA (Bruce Young) (03/05/85)
re: SIMACS SIMACS is supported for each os SV or 4.2, BUT you cannot share disks between two different os YET. Eventually, SI will attempt separate file directories with common storage. (End of speculation.) Ask about the SIMACS kernal modifications to provide locks on file accesses. The host accessing shared disks must own the system disk during the access. This means all dirty buffers from the previous owner host must be flushed. thus, be certainto check benchmarks for interactive traffic; eg, any screen editor when run on multiple hosts. One merit, naturally, of SIMACS is access to the shared disks from another computer when your favorite host is down. However, ask SI about changing ownership of the ? Conclusion, SI persues essential system needs but check all benchmarks and kernal modifications. -Bruce young@AMES-NAS.ARPA