MCB@MIT-MC.ARPA (07/09/84)
From: "Michael A. Bloom" <MCB@MIT-MC.ARPA> Do you have a favorite small computer that runs UNIX? I intend to buy a machine running UNIX towards the end of the summer, and would like information to help me make a decision. Please tell me: What machines do you know of that have a decent UNIX implementation? What do you like best about it/them? What misfeatures are present? I'm particularly interested in info on 68K and 16032 based machines, but welcome info on others. 4.x would be a plus. So would a non-4.x system that nonetheless has job control. If you work for a manufacturer of UNIX based machines, send me a line about your product. If you own such a machine, please also write. If there is interest, I will summarize to the net. Thanks, Michael Bloom - mcb@mit-mc (arpa) - ..!vortex!ttidca!mab (uucp)
honey@down.FUN (07/11/84)
my favorite personal computer running unix is a vax 11/750. a little light on cycles, but a 780 is just too damned wide. peter honeyman
mike@hpdcdb.UUCP (07/15/84)
You might check out the HP9000 family. Series 500 is a proprietary CPU(s), and Series 200 is a MC68000 (MC68010). - not a neutral source, hpfcla!mike
bsafw@ncoast.UUCP (The WITNESS) (07/16/84)
TRS-80 Model 16B. It will even fit on a (large) desktop.
--
Brandon Allbery: decvax!cwruecmp{!atvax}!bsafw
6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, OH 44131
"himself being one universe's prime example of utter, rambunctious free will!"pedz@smu.UUCP (07/22/84)
#R:sri-arpa:-175400:smu:18500016:000:533 smu!pedz Jul 21 18:23:00 1984 We have four suns holding the floor down here at smu. I find them to be less than usefull. Any high performance computer that does screen scrolling in software is stupid. That is just the beginning of the problems with the suns. Their philosophy seems to be "Fix it with software" which is o.k. unless you want to get finish today instead of next week. I cast one definate NO vote for the suns. (These are sun 2's with the new software and all. Before the "upgrade" they were absured.) Perry Smith convex!smu!pedz (uucp)
sunny@sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) (07/24/84)
Question: Are you running the minimal 1Meg RAM? Are you using them (Sun's) as single user workstations? Diskless? If so, what is the configuration of your server hardware? Which Suns? Which software release? etc? what is your CONTEXT for finding them useless? i.e.: are your machines swapping to death or do they have enough ram? Re: software scrolling, what else do you expect on a bit-mapped graphics display?
joe@petsd.UUCP (08/01/84)
<>
The Perkin-Elmer 7350 offers a 68000 under UniPlus~ derived from
System III. Up to 1.3MB of memory in monochrome, 448KB in color.
Has (720x256) bit mapped graphics - color version has palette of
27 colors in four planes. Includes 15MB Winchester and 2
Floppies. Up to Four RS-232 ports plus optional IEEE-488.
MenuMaker~ front end for easy access to applications. Optionally
available are VisiWord~, The FinalWord~, Supercomp-Twenty~,
UNIFY~, RM-COBOL~, and DI-3000 family of graphics libraries -
Graphs, Contour Maps, and Metafiles. Also, home grown personal
file system called The Record Keeper~.
Nice features are vivid colors, bezel mounted soft keys,
attractive prices start under $10,000, and growth path into
Perkin-Elmer Series 3200 running XELOS~, which is the first non-
AT&T System V Release 2 on the market.
"Misfeatures" are paucity of expansion slots (but look out for
announcement soon), only four ports and memory limit of color
machine (also soon to be fixed).
~trademarks
regards,
joe
--
Full-Name: Joseph M. Orost
UUCP: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!joe
US Mail: MS 313; Perkin-Elmer; 106 Apple St; Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Phone: (201) 870-5844brent@itm.UUCP (Brent) (08/06/84)
X
Let's clarify the Perkin-Elmer claim. Their System V.2
is *not* now on the market, and likely won't be till October.
If you buy one of thir 68K based Sys III workstations you can
currently migrate upward to their 3200 series running enhanced
Verion 7. How you'd migrate your software upwards (?) is up to
you.
--
Brent Laminack (akgua!itm!brent)west@sdcsla.UUCP (08/09/84)
In response to Perry Smith [of "smu", whatever that may be]: > We have four suns holding the floor down here at smu. I find them > to be less than usefull. Any high performance computer that does > screen scrolling in software is stupid. That is just the beginning > of the problems with the suns. Their philosophy seems to be > "Fix it with software" which is o.k. unless you want to get finish > today instead of next week. I cast one definate NO vote for the suns. > (These are sun 2's with the new software and all. Before the "upgrade" > they were absured.) Really? Sun-2's less than useful? We have several here in the Cognitive Science Lab, and I don't think there is anyone who finds them less than useful. Windows are generally well-done and quick, and the response is usually fine. We use them for software development, [real-time] typing tests, word processing & text formatting, message delivery, modelling (and associated interactive graphics), heating up the room and so on.... Of course, you need 2 Megs or more of "core", and 16 Megs of swap space (which is not well utilized), but once you have that, and hopefully an Ethernet, I really can't imagine why you exhibit such disdain for Suns. Of course they fix some things with software -- do you really expect companies to replace an entire board (in hundreds of installations) when some minor bug crops up? And what difference does it generally make to you how the bug is fixed? Similarly, how someone does their scrolling really doesn't matter nearly as much as how well it is done. Sun could have done better on this, and I expect them to in a future release, but it really doesn't bother me. I don't tend to spend much time trying to read and scroll at the same time on terminals which do this quite nicely (though not many do at 9600 baud). It would be useful for readers of such comparisons if you would specify the use to which you put your machine(s), what you are comparing them to [an ideal? a comparably-priced machine?], and what in particular you find disappointing. Simply stating that a computer is less than useful merely indicates that you haven't figured out how to use it. -- Larry West, UC San Diego, Institute for Cognitive Science -- decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcsla!west -- ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcsla!west -- west@NPRDC {{ NOT: <sdcsla!west@NPRDC> [aarg!] }}