steve@ea.UUCP (11/26/85)
/* ---------- "Third Party 3B2 equipment??" ---------- */
Are there any third party vendors of hardware for the
3B2? Memory, disks, etc?
--
Ken,
There are quite a number of 3rd party venders for at&t hardware. We call
them VAR's (Value-added Resellers). They offer everything from package
systems including software to enhanced disk drives. One VAR that I have
worked with and know to be good is Feith Systems in Philadelphia. They
are in the phone book there. They manufacture add-on drives for the
UNIX PC, the PC6300 and a 6-10 ms access time 525 MB drive for the 3b2.
They also market some vertical accounting packages that are quite good.
If you are interested in finding out more... contact your local AT&T
Information Systems Representative.
Steve Blasingame {ea,uokvax}glmnhh!bstevejra@lan000 (01/14/86)
[ someone having trouble invoking 'ld' directly on Xenix V on XT ] The Microsoft Xenix System 3 'cc' command has a '-d' flag which you might find useful. WHen this flag is used, the 'cc' program prints out the command line used to invoke the various passes as it compiles and links. Maybe your system has this flag, too. John R. Adams -----------------+ allegra \ ! Lantech Systems, Inc. ihnp4 >!convex!infoswx!lan000!jra 9635 Wendell Road uiucdcs / ! Dallas, TX 75243 -----------------+ (214) 340-4932
steve@ea.UUCP (03/28/86)
There are 2 approaches to this problem. The first and most straightforward is to wire a jumper on the modem cable to a lead which is always asserted high on the modem and then to carrier detect. This should succeed in faking out the 3b. Unfortunately, since UNIX systems use CD to determine whether or not a device is present, you may have problems with the modem being hung up, but not getting a hangup signal sent to the process on the line. The second approach is to acquire the source code for the kernel and change the code dealing with this in tty.c. This is a sure fix for the problem but you must pay $1000 for the privilege (assuming you get an academic license). I have used both. Fortunately, most smart modems have an option to hold CD high. Steve Blasingame (Oklahoma City) ihnp4!attmail!sblasingame ihnp4!cuuxb!glmnhh!bsteve
notes@gorgo.UUCP (04/19/86)
The 3b2/400 performance is more than acceptable with 20 to 25 users logged in (in the environment that your describe). The performance appears to be VERY similar to the VAX 11/750 under conditions that are not extremely I/O intensive. You should (of course configure it with 4 MB of memory). For your kind of workload, get the paging version of the kernel. It will be nice. Steve Blasingame (Oklahoma City) ihnp4!okstate!glmnhh!bsteve
tony@xios.UUCP (Keeper Of News) (05/02/86)
I tried mailing this, but one of the machines (sdcc3) on my way to him doesn't seem to be talking. There was another posting which said that it was a reasonable choice for your application. Maybe I'm spoiled, but I find it rather slow. Anyway here is the text of may mail message. ========================================================================== Actually, I find it mighty slow with just one user. Looking at the results of a certain benchmark set ( the results of which can't be published due to our licence ), it is better than a 3b2/300, about equivalent to a Spectrix Series 30 ( 8MHz 68000 on a multibus ) or a 68010 NCR Tower. We tested a MicroVax II, and it is about twice as fast, and a Convergent Technologies Mightyframe which is about 3 - 10 times faster. All these machines are running System V, except the Spectrix, which runs V7, and the MicroVax, which runs Ultrix 1.1 (or is it 1.2). Now all these tests were done in single user mode, so besides the usual caveates about benchmarks, they don't say much about how they react when loaded with users. However... The 3B2 machines do a wee bit of processing on the ports board, which means that under a high i/o load it would suffer less than the MicroVax (depending on which boards you are using) or the Tower, though not much. Now the Tower can do DMA from the frontend straight into user memory, and they have a 68020 model, so that may be much better than indicated, especially for the kind of application you are interested in. Now the Mightyframe has an i/o processor board ( an added option ) which off-loads most of the work from the main CPU (68020). So for your application you are unlikely to see much degradation from the above results. Insofar as using them for normal things, with 1-5 users, I have the following subjective results from doing things like mail, vi, etc.: 3B2 (both 300 and 400 ) - pigs Spectrix, MicroVax - reasonable with one or two people, slowing down mightily with more. Mightyframe - blindingly fast. Most commands start with no visible delay, piggish programs like rn, vi, SuperRogue, less than a second. Rnews doesn't even make a dent. So, in summation, the 3b2 starts out as a pig, and will get worse as you add users to it (when I mentioned 20 users on a 3B, some one asked if it was a joke). The Mightyframe flys like the wind, and I've seen no visible degradation with up to five people and an rnews going at the same time. (And according to the sales pitch, this should be true for 20). Though I'm not in the habbit of hawking other people's equipment, I'd suggest you look at the Mightyframe. For about the same price as the 3b2, it's a lot more bang for the buck. (It also has TCP/IP a la sockets and other Berkley goodies). Though I don't have a phone number handy, they are located in San Jose, Ca. #include <Usual_disclaimer> -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tony Lill Keeper of News @ Xios Systems Corporation 1600 Carling Avenue, Suite 150, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1Z 8R8 (613) 725-5411 utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!xios!tony ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not the edge of the world, but we can see it from here.
jpb@mia (05/11/86)
/* Written 8:09 am May 1, 1986 by rabtrs!rab in mia:net.micro.att */ /* ---------- "Re: Lctrl <-> capslock switch for t" ---------- */ Jonathon Clark writes: > Jan Wolitzkty's plea for a driver to invert the sense of the left-hand > control key and the caps lock key on the unix pc has already been > answered. > > A loadable driver to so this has been available from THE STORE! for ages. > Just pick up CAPCTL. Thanks to Marcus Hand for answering the question > before I did and to Paul Fox who wrote the software. What and where is "THE STORE?" It sounds like something I should know about for my 7300. /* End of text from mia:net.micro.att */ Send mail to: { decvax,allegra}!philabs!hhb!kosman!fjfah!fred About The STORE!. He is the STOREkeeper & can answer all your questions. JB uucp: decvax!mcnc!rti-sel!ethos!holmes!jpb fido: 135/14 Joe Block voice: 305-238-5217 data: 305-238-5217 (Holmes IV BBS, login as new. Runs on an AT&T 7300)
bsteve@gorgo.UUCP (05/12/86)
>1. Who is the manufacturer of the hard drv controller? >2. What is the model number, etc? I believe that it uses the WD1010. >3. What step rate does it expect? Can you change/reprogram > this when installing and formatting a new hard drive? > >Are there any success/failure stories out there regarding >the installation of an external HD on the UNIX pc? I don't know about the step rate, but I have installed a number of external drives with varied specs. It will swallow just about anything that is ST506 up to 86 MB. You may only get 50-60 MB of usable surface on the large drives though. The Wren and Wren II drives work quite nicely with it Steve Blasingame (AT&T Computer Systems / Oklahoma City) {ihnp4!occrsh, cbosgd!okstate!glmnhh}!gorgo!bsteve
bsteve@gorgo.UUCP (05/12/86)
The store is a AT&T internal-only facility supported by a AT&T Bell Labs site for distribution of UNIX-PC software. Currently it is accessible only by AT&T personel. Much of what is there is already public domain, but some of it is proprietary (unsupported/as-is) code that we don't wish to see proliferated. Steve Blasingame (AT&T Oklahoma City) attmail!sblasingame gorgo!bsteve
bsteve@gorgo.UUCP.UUCP (07/14/86)
kathy@bakerst.UUCP in net.micro.att writes: >Question: I did a bit of reading on the 6300 Plus >about 6 months ago or more, and Simul-Task wasn't >included. What *was* included that I don't think >I've seen mentioned here lately was something called >"OS Merge." Is Simul-Task the new name for OS Merge? >Or is it something new? The complete name of the product is Simul-Task OS-Merge. For some reason people didn't want to say all of that, so they shortened it. Simul-Task is the name of the product and OS-Merge is what it does. For instance, I type `dir | more' at the shell and get an MSDOS directory listing piped through the UNIX more. Steve Blasingame Oklahoma City ihnp4!occrsh!gorgo!bsteve
bsteve@gorgo.UUCP.UUCP (07/15/86)
>davidsen@steinmetz.UUCP in net.micro.att writes: > >[flame retardent suit on] >We were supposed to be a 6300+ test site for the new UNIX/DOS os. We >have had the machine for months and still are told that the os is not >available. People tell me that (a) they have it, or (b) they'll have it >Real Soon Now, or (c) everybody knows it's available. All I can say >from personal experience is that the machine sits in a corner and waits >for the os, while we run XENIX on AT's. Either the os is not available, >or somebody doesn't want to sell it very much. >[end flame suit] > >If someone REALLY HAS this os, please report. I have had it for about a month. My AT&T branch has been ordering it for customers for about that long. It has been available since early June. I can't imagine why someone wouldn't want to sell it... I am absolutely delighted with mine. The UNIX implementation is very clean and the window manager is fast and easy to use. I can run all of that DOS stuff that I paid TOO MUCH money for under UNIX too. Steve Blasingame ihnp4!occrsh!gorgo!bsteve