johnl@ima.UUCP (12/15/85)
/* Written 6:48 pm Dec 12, 1985 by mark@mrstve in ima:net.micro */ > I am looking for a multiuser or networked system which can: > o Run very fast!! > o Handle databases with over 5000 records > with little to no change in acces time. > o Able to communicate with AT&T 3B2 with > little to no conversion. > One particular system I have been looking at is the IBM AT. I also > am looking at the Tandy 1200HD which is rumored to between the IBM XT and > the IBM AT speed-wise. If this is true let me know, because the Tandy is > about 2/3 the cost of the IBM computers. The Tandy 1200HD is exactly the same speed as a PC-XT because it is a very close clone (no rumor, we have several and I use them all the time.) The Tandy 3000, which I have looked at only briefly, appears to be a nice PC-AT clone which runs faster, 8MHZ rather than 6MHZ. Since you evidently plan to plug terminals into your PC, you need a multiuser system. Regular DOS software speaks solely to the PC's console, and generally cannot be persuaded to speak to terminals, even if there's only one user. (DOS has a "ctty" command that is intended to redirect console I/O but most useful programs don't go to the console via the path that ctty redirects.) If you want a multiuser system, the XT or a clone is rather underpowered, and the only multiuser system that I know of is SCO Xenix. You can run 3 users on an AT under Xenix on an AT with OK response. There are many systems to network together single-user PCs that work. We use 3Com ethernet, but lots of people use Novell software on various kinds of hardware. As far as multi-user data bases go, you should proceed very carefully. There are many out there for the PC that sort of work. Cornerstone is single-user only, as is KMan. The authors of KMan put out a more complete multiuser dbms called MDBS, but while looking for a dbms I got a long disgusted message from a guy who said that it was so buggy he gave up. Multi-user Dbase III is brand new, I've heard nothing solid about it. One that I have used with success is DataFlex from Data Access in Miami, which works fine although you need to write a program to do anything much. The programs are usually short, but you couldn't expect users without a taste for programming to write them. For canned applications, it's just fine. I use DataFlex on the 3Com ethernet network, but there are versions for other networks and for Xenix. John Levine, ima!johnl