larry@focsys.UUCP (Larry Williamson ) (04/28/88)
We are installing a network of industrial XT's in a factory. These XT's
will be acting as dumb colour terminals connected to a Unix system.
Because of the industrial environment, we would like to have these
XT's diskless.
We see two basic solutions.
. have msdos installed on a nonvolatile memory system in the XT
. boot msdos over the serial port from the Unix machine.
The nonvolatile memory system would be acceptable if it can be
upgraded without replacing any chips, ie using ROM is out. Bubble
memory, or battery backup ram is okay. We will also want to have
this memory system hold our communication program.
Booting over the serial line would be acceptable, except that the
boot times could become rather lengthy. The serial channel will be
running at 9600 baud max.
Does anyone know of a solution to this problem? Are there any products
on the market that will do what we want?
--
Larry Williamson Focus Automation Systems
UUCP: watmath!focsys!larry 608 Weber St. N, Waterloo, Ontario N2V 1K4
+1 519 746 4918Paul_L_Schauble@cup.portal.com (05/01/88)
If you want dumb color terminals, why not buy dumb color terminals? There are several different brands on the market that should serve.
dave@westmark.UUCP (Dave Levenson) (05/06/88)
In article <171@focsys.UUCP>, larry@focsys.UUCP (Larry Williamson ) writes: > We are installing a network of industrial XT's in a factory. These XT's > will be acting as dumb colour terminals connected to a Unix system. > Because of the industrial environment, we would like to have these > XT's diskless. ... > Booting over the serial line would be acceptable, except that the > boot times could become rather lengthy. The serial channel will be > running at 9600 baud max. IBM offers a net-boot option -- requiring their LAN card, I think, and a replacement BIOS rom. Note, they do not put MS-DOS in ROM, but they make the system boot from the network server. This ought to be faster than using the serial port, which you can then still use to communicate with your UNIX host. You'd probably also need a single disk-equipped MS-DOS machine somewhere to play server to the net, but if it's only used for booting, it probably doesn't have to be a super-expensive device. -- Dave Levenson Westmark, Inc. The Man in the Mooney Warren, NJ USA {rutgers | clyde | mtune | ihnp4}!westmark!dave