jrodrig@EDN-VAX.ARPA (Jose Rodriguez) (06/12/86)
We got a flier from an outfit in San Jose, CA called Symmetrics that sells 4.2 Unix machines using National Semi's 32000 series chips for $5k to $10k. My question is, does anyone has seen the little machines? Are they for real? We are thinking of a getting a few sight unseen which is not very wise and I was hoping some out there could help us. They advertise the machines as the 20 pound vaxen! thanks for any info, Jose arpa: jrodrig@edn-vax
lacasse@RAND-UNIX.ARPA (06/13/86)
RE:
We got a flier from an outfit in San Jose, CA called Symmetrics
that sells 4.2 Unix machines using National Semi's 32000 series
chips for $5k to $10k. My question is, does anyone has seen the
little machines? Are they for real? We are thinking of a getting
a few sight unseen which is not very wise and I was hoping some
out there could help us.
I saw one at a Usenix meeting. It seemed to work, but I didn't
really test it. It was very small, and had good specs for the money.
As I recall, it had 4M Ram, 50M Disk, FULL 4.2 (no subsetting!), an
ethernet port, a 1M floppy, a connector for scci drives/tapes, a
connector for more floppies, and an ethernet connection. At the time
they wanted $9K if paid up front, and $10K with P.O.
If you buy some, please let us know how you like them.
Mark LaCasse qantel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!randvax!lacasse
c/o The Rand Corporation cbosgd!ihnp4!sdcrdcf!randvax!lacasse
1700 Main Street lacasse@Rand-Unix
Santa Monica, CA 90406
213/393-0411 ext. 7420hoffman%pitt@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA (Bob Hoffman) (06/18/86)
UUCP site 'winfree' is a Symmetric 375. I have played with this box
and I'm quite impressed. The basic machine comes with 2mb RAM and a
Rodime 50MB drive. Winfree has 4mb RAM and an 86MB Fujitsu drive.
The average access time of the Fujitsu drive is much lower than the
Rodime, so that would be my choice, were I buying one. The unit has
three RS232 ports and, I believe, one Centronics printer port. Early
units did not have Ethernet hardware and Symmetric sold them for
several $K less than the current model. As recently as April, they
still had some available. The processor is a National Semiconductor
32016 and the O/S is NSC's GENIX, which is a true 4.2bsd port. The
head man at Symmetric is Bill Jolitz, of Berkeley fame. For an
owner's report, contact Bdale Garbee (winfree!bdale). Winfree has
uucp connections to pitt and bellcore. I will forward any mail sent
to me.
--
Bob Hoffman, N3CVL {allegra, bellcore, cadre, idis, psuvax1}!pitt!hoffman
Pitt Computer Science hoffman%pitt@csnet-relay