thw9759@ultb.UUCP (T.H. White) (04/13/89)
Which is better, an AT&T 3B1 or a PC/AT clone? - a 3B1 is a real 32 bit machine has demand paging capability - a 3B1 runs UNIX 5.2 (a real unix) which runs GNU - a 3B1 costs a lot to repair and often times you can't repair - an AT runs Xenix, DOS, you name it, it runs it. - an AT is a 16 bit machine with no demand paging capability - can fix any part in an AT for around $200 or less What other differences are there? Which is better???
thw9759@ultb.UUCP (T.H. White) (04/20/89)
Thank for the responses. Yes, cost is an important factor. I would like to just go out and purchase an AT clone and have DOS and XENIX running it. I don't like XENIX too much mainly because it seems like a wimpy OS but I am sure that is due to the fact that the hardware (AT) has a very hard time supporting it. You can only have 64K address segments unless you screw around with things underneath but then things don't always work quite right. Thre is no demand paging which is a big bummmer. Either the program you are running is in memory (all of it) or else it is all on the disk and no in between. That means that no program can be longer than 640K minus the size of XENIX. That is not very big! Unless you can use the extended memory for addressing which I don't believe is possible. I am very afraid to go out any buy a used 3B1 because I am afraid something will go wrong with it and I cannot afford to buy an additional 3B1 for parts, or buy an expensive service contract, or afford to get it repaired very many times. Steve @nuchat in Houston writes: A friend has a 3B1 which is running V0 or V1 or something like that. Well I have seen 3B1's in action and they were running AT&T UNIX 5.2, so.... Also the 3B1 does in fact have a 16bit data bus but uses two fetches to run at a 32bit addressing mode. It is not limited to 64K segments or any of that crap that the AT is. There is a big difference here between an AT 16 bits and a 3B1 which is 32 bits in actuality. And the best of all, larry at grebyn!macom1 writes: You can buy a 386 clone for $1000! Where??? Not in computer shopper. Not anywhere except maybe in the streets of NYC hot! You could probably get a motherboard for that price with no memory, whoppie... Noww buy everything else like 2meg of memory, a 40+meg HD, monitor, I/O ports, modem, and a UNIX. Now you are over $5000! probably. No thanks. Good try though. You know I have been reading Computer Shopper for the last year and I have found out something very interesting: They always have the virtually the same ads every month! Sure one ad says: get an AT motherboard for $200 Yeah, if you buy 10 of them. What the hell am I going to do with 10 of them? Another says: get a complete system for $900 or something like that. Yeah all except the monitor, modem, memory, old motherboards (made 5 years ago or so, still have to buy DOS or whatever, probably have to buy some cable somewhere inside that they make exclusively that sells for $50 or something, you know how it is. YES, some of the companies are ok. I just had a friend that purchased a complete 286 system from Tri-Star and was very good (so far). I think if I do buy one, it will be from there because I know it is good. A couple of more things that torque me off about those mail-order places: Sure they give you an 800 number to call and another number that is not toll free for information. Well, screw them. I will call the 800 number anyways, and well if I can't get information, I go elsewhere. I would suggest other people to do the same. And if you do order from a company, you better sure as hell hope you got what you want because you CAN'T return it! Sure you get 30 days or 15 days or whatever. Whooptie doo. By the time UPS brings it (they deliver 3 times and then send back if you aren't home) to your home, I don't sit around waiting all day for the local UPS man to come so te odds are that it will be the 2nd or 3rd try for them to get it to me and that is usually 1 to 1-1/2 weeks after I placed the order. Sure I can federal express for some ungodly amount. And then you have to take time to set it all up (read the Japanese manuals an all) and then finally after figuring out something that they failed to tell you about, test the thing and find that it doesn't work like you wanted. By this time you have had the machine say for 3 or 4 days. Now you pack it back up and take it back to your local neighborhood UPS place and pay mega$$ to have it sent back. If you happen to get it back by the time the 30days is up you are lucky and still have to pay that 15% restocking fee (15% of $1800) is about $270!!!! Well, there you have it! Well I gotta go now, the wife calls... CRASH PS: You can express your feelings about this anytime.