mlh@houxl.UUCP (M.HARRISON) (05/23/87)
AT&T will have their VMEbus UNIX System in Phoenix, and it occurred to me that there might be some interest in organizing a BOF to talk about considerations in porting UNIX to an open-architecture environment such as VME. People seem amazed at the performance we've gotten, and I think we have a good story to tell about how we did it, if anyone's interested. Discussion, both pro and con welcome, and, if there's interest, I'll post a session announcement here. Marc Harrison AT&T - Holmdel, NJ (201) 949-1779 ...ihnp4!houxl!mlh
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (05/25/87)
> AT&T will have their VMEbus UNIX System in Phoenix, and it occurred > to me that there might be some interest in organizing a BOF to talk > about considerations in porting UNIX to an open-architecture > environment such as VME... Well, it depends. There undoubtedly are interesting things to be said about both "porting Unix to open-architecture environments" and "how AT&T built its VMEbus Unix". It should be noted that the latter is a *very* small subset of the former, though. Calling it a "VMEbus BOF" would be silly, since AT&T is a johnny-come-lately when it comes to running Unix on VMEbus systems, being behind Sun, Integrated Solutions, Dual, MIPSCo, probably Motorola, and undoubtedly others. How much interest you will get depends on whether you are thinking of: (1) A BOF on porting Unix to open-architecture environments, in which the AT&T VMEbus system would serve as one case study among many, since lots of other people did the same thing earlier (including, let us not forget, Thompson and Ritchie, who DEVELOPED Unix on machines that were largely open-architecture). (2) A BOF about the implementation of the AT&T VMEbus system, in which technical staff from a potential competitor would find it worthwhile to take notes. (3) Marketing hype about the AT&T VMEbus system, in which nobody technical will bother taking notes because any who attend will be asleep within ten minutes. Speaking for myself, I would attend (1), might attend (2), and would sneer in passing at (3). "Would my competition's technical people take notes?" is an *excellent* litmus test for whether your topic belongs at Usenix, either as a talk or as a BOF. -- "The average nutritional value Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology of promises is roughly zero." {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry
mad@motatl.UUCP (Mark Davidson) (06/01/87)
> AT&T will have their VMEbus UNIX System in Phoenix, and it occurred > to me that there might be some interest in organizing a BOF to talk > about considerations in porting UNIX to an open-architecture > environment such as VME. People seem amazed at the performance > we've gotten, and I think we have a good story to tell about how we > did it, if anyone's interested. > Marc, I agree wholeheartedly! As an avid VME user and abuser :-) I am very much interested in discussing the happenings of the VMEbus. I have been actively involved with VMEbus for 3 years now. Frankly, I am rather surprised that USENET has had no one volunteer to set up a new newsgroup. I think the VMEbus has come into its own as a high-speed supermicro bus. If anyone else is interested in the VMEbus please respond to Marc and myself. -- Regards, Mark /\/\/\/\/\/\/\ "...Hep me!...Hep me!...I've been HYPnotized!!!..." Mark Davidson - SE @ Motorola Microcomputer Division, Atlanta, Ga. UUCP: {hplabs!motsj1, mot!motsj1} motbos!motatl!mad Voice: 404-449-0493 UUCP: 404-449-9635 Fax: 404-449-8417