sullivan@aqdata.uucp (Michael T. Sullivan) (06/05/90)
:From article <3532@wb3ffv.ampr.org>, by smarc@wb3ffv.ampr.org (Marc Siegel): > > I wonder how many other people out there work for companies that > have LARGE investments in 3b2 hardware and software. We have several > 3b2's that may not be supported very much longer. While nobody at > AT&T will actually confirm this, it seems that the 3b2 is a dead > product line. Do you mean the whole 3B2 line or the 310/400 models? I doubt the former and I believe the latter has already been announced. The low-end 3B2's are slower than 386's so why not phase them out. However, I have heard nothing to suggest that the rest of the entire 3B2 line is on its way out. -- Michael Sullivan uunet!jarthur!aqdata!sullivan aQdata, Inc. sullivan@aqdata.uucp San Dimas, CA +1 714 599 9992
nts0699@dsac.dla.mil (Gene McManus) (06/05/90)
From article <3532@wb3ffv.ampr.org>, by smarc@wb3ffv.ampr.org (Marc Siegel): > > I wonder how many other people out there work for companies that > have LARGE investments in 3b2 hardware and software. We have several > 3b2's that may not be supported very much longer. While nobody at > AT&T will actually confirm this, it seems that the 3b2 is a dead > product line. The US Department of Defense has (or will have soon) a _massive_ investment in 3b2 600Gs from the AFCAC251 contract. At this point we have no indications that they are about to become unsupported. In fact, we have contractural support agreements thru AFCAC251 that they will be fully supported for 5 years. All indications from the AT&T engineers with whom we have contact also seems to indicate that at least this beast is alive & well. Gene Gene McManus @ DLA Systems Automation Center, DSAC-X Columbus, OH 43215 (614) 238-9403, Autovon 850- Internet: gmcmanus@dsac.dla.mil (131.78.1.1) UUCP: {uunet!gould,cbosgd!osu-cis}!dsacg1!gmcmanus <<"Dibi bili ve prdele ribi, ne musi vedt na rybnik!" - The Bad Czech>> The views expressed are my own, not those of the Agency, or Dept. of Defense
lfd@cbnewsm.att.com (leland.f.derbenwick) (06/06/90)
In article <3532@wb3ffv.ampr.org>, smarc@wb3ffv.ampr.org (Marc Siegel) writes: > > I wonder how many other people out there work for companies that > have LARGE investments in 3b2 hardware and software. We have several > 3b2's that may not be supported very much longer. While nobody at > AT&T will actually confirm this, it seems that the 3b2 is a dead > product line. I work for a company that has a LARGE investment in 3b2 hardware and software! :-) :-) There were some internal rumors at one point that the 3b2 line was going to go away, but they were all denied once someone in 3b2-land heard them. It appears that the _old_ 3b2 computers (even those slightly newer than the already-discontinued 3b2/300 "pizza box") will be going away, but that the line will be extended with new ones. Of course, my _particular_ project uses mostly VAX 8650's and PDP 11/70's (both _discontinued_ machines from DEC), so I'm not an expert on the 3b line. (Hey, this project started out on IBM mainframes, and still uses them...) But at least one other project in my lab runs _only_ on 3b2's and they don't appear to be worried about them going away. -- Speaking strictly for myself, -- Lee Derbenwick, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Warren, NJ -- lfd@cbnewsm.ATT.COM or <wherever>!att!cbnewsm!lfd
fmcgee@cuuxb.ATT.COM (~XT6561110~Frank McGee~C23~L25~6326~) (06/08/90)
In article <1990Jun4.224210.23804@aqdata.uucp> sullivan@aqdata.uucp (Michael T. Sullivan) writes: >:From article <3532@wb3ffv.ampr.org>, by smarc@wb3ffv.ampr.org (Marc Siegel): >> >> I wonder how many other people out there work for companies that >> have LARGE investments in 3b2 hardware and software. We have several >> 3b2's that may not be supported very much longer. While nobody at >> AT&T will actually confirm this, it seems that the 3b2 is a dead >> product line. > >Do you mean the whole 3B2 line or the 310/400 models? I doubt the former >and I believe the latter has already been announced. The low-end 3B2's >are slower than 386's so why not phase them out. However, I have heard >nothing to suggest that the rest of the entire 3B2 line is on its way out. Do you refer to support, or availability of new product ? Most people are primarily concerned with support, and that will be around for quite a while. In general, AT&T continues to support a product until 5 years after it has been manufacturer discontined (md'd) - ie, no longer orderable as a new product. The worst case for the 3B2 would be the 300/310, which was md'd last year I believe. I don't know if the 400 is still available, and the 500 and higher will probably be available for a long time to come, and then supported for about 5 years after they are no longer available. In fact, there are a lot of people in my building that work on support for 3B2's, and they'll be around for a long time to come. As for peripherals, most of the 3B's use SCSI, and the 6386 line introduced SCSI peripherals this year. The 6386 machines use the same SCSI peripherals as the 3B2, so they will be around for a long time as well. Frank McGee Entry Level Systems Support attmail!fmcgee (prefered) {att,attmail}!cuuxb!fmcgee -- Frank McGee, AT&T Entry Level Systems Support attmail!fmcgee (preferred) att!cuuxb!fmcgee (those that can't reach attmail)