trb (08/02/82)
I saw this in MISWeek today: Fenix Timesharing (in Minnesota) is offering commercial timesharing on a VAX11/750 running 4.1bsd with 1Mbyte of main memory, and a Fuji 160 Mbyte disk drive and a 75 ips Kennedy tape drive each with Emulex controller. The primetime charges are: $5/1200 baud connect hour $2/Mbyte disk day $2/CPU minute They claim that UNI-OPS says that they are the only VAX offering UNIX timesharing. [I haven't heard of any other.] Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491
mark (08/03/82)
I see to remember CCA said they sell time. In general, I find it hard to believe that there aren't lots of vaxen out there selling time. I think FENIX is probably just the first to advertise nationally. I suspect most of you have seen the blurb you got mailed from FENIX if you went to USENIX. I thought their style was amusing - they run 4.1BSD but won't admit it. They claim they run something called "Version 32 of UNIX with Berkley enhancements". I wonder if Berkley is anywhere near Berkeley? They consistently misspell it in their blurb. Also, I always thought the "V" in "UNIX/32V" stood for "VAX". They also claim to offer, among their services, mail and uucp. Does anyone (say those of you in Minnesota) know if and where they are connected in to the rest of the world? Mark
dee (08/03/82)
Computer Corporation of America has been offering 4.1bsd service commercially on a VAX-11/780 for over a year. We are accessible via Tymnet and direct dial. Our connect time and disk storage charges are cheaper than Fenix. Depending on how you compare a 1 meagbyte 11/750 with a 7 megabyte 11/780, our CPU charges are effectively much cheaper third shift, a little cheaper second shift, and somewhat more expensive first shift. We have no monthly billing minimum. We can also, for users appropriately authorized by ARPA, provide Arpanet access. Please direct queries to z@cca-unix or decvax!cca!z Donald E. Eastlake, III Computer Corporation of America 617-491-3670 575 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139
vtl (08/09/82)
About FENIX (Fargo Electronic something or other), I called them up and talked to the sales rep for a while. They aren't on the net, though claim to be working on it. He told me that if I knew anyone with an ACU, they could run uucp once called. He rambled on for a while, mostly reading the sales brochure and telling me nothing new. This p ~v (damn) This got me curious, so I drove out to Eden Prarie to have a look. It was after hours, so all I could see was a vt100ish terminal on a desk in the window. They look *really* new. No sign anywhere indicating what company or whatever, just the address above the door. It looks like they got my address (for the flyer) from the Santa Monica USENIX conference. If you were there, you can probably expect one also. Vic Lee St. Olaf College