[comp.sys.dec] DECstation 2100,3100 comments

beveland@IASTATE.EDU (Eveland Bruce R) (02/21/91)

Hi!

I'm interested in receiving any comments on DECstation 2100, 3100s.
Such as reliablilty, inherent hardware problems, i/o speed, will they
still be viable products in three years, etc.  We are thinking of using
them for database work and productivity things like wordprocessing,
spreadsheet, statistical, and bibilo-searching.  Any comments will be
well appreciated.  Thanx!!

Bruce Eveland
College of Veterinary Medicine
Iowa State University

pavlov@canisius.UUCP (Greg Pavlov) (02/25/91)

In article <1991Feb20.114437@IASTATE.EDU>, beveland@IASTATE.EDU (Eveland Bruce R) writes:
> 
> I'm interested in receiving any comments on DECstation 2100, 3100s.
> Such as reliablilty, inherent hardware problems, i/o speed, will they
> still be viable products in three years, etc.....

  Our 3100s have been fine reliability-wise:  our MTBF "history" is >2000 days.

  We haven't been thrilled with disk i/o, neither has anyone else that we
  know of, hoped that DEC would provide some sort of upgrade on that score,
  but no such luck.

  Re long-term viability:

    1. the rumor mills claim that the 2100/3100 set will be supplanted by new
       machine(s) Real Soon Now;

    2. unlike SUN or HP, DEC isn't much on offering upgrade kits.

  greg pavlov, fstrf, amherst, ny
  pavlov@stewart.fstrf.org

edelsohn@sccs.syr.edu (David Edelsohn) (02/26/91)

In article <3227@canisius.UUCP>, pavlov@canisius.UUCP (Greg Pavlov) writes:
>    1. the rumor mills claim that the 2100/3100 set will be supplanted by new
>       machine(s) Real Soon Now;
>
>    2. unlike SUN or HP, DEC isn't much on offering upgrade kits.

	 A very reliable source has told me that DEC will offer upgrades to
current 2100/3100 owners in the form of complete system enclosure swaps --
keyboard, monitor, and mouse remain.  The 5000's enclosure, bus, and
firmware appear to be DEC's standard for the Mips-based product line.  Those
planning purchases in the near future should request non-disclosure
presentations from their respective DEC salesperson.
	My question is how long will it take DEC to incorporate X11R5 (shipping
to X Consortium members at the end of this month) into their product line?
Public release of X11R5 is rumored to occur during a much warmer season this
year.  Again the timing is great for DEC as they convert DECWindows's GUI from
XUI to OSF/Motif.  Given DEC's lead time and product testing, I guess that it
will ship with Ultrix 5.1 next calendar year, but I would like to be
pleasantly surprised.
-- 
===============================================================================
David Edelsohn                                          SCCS/Dept of Physics
INTERNET: edelsohn@sccs.Syr.EDU                         201 Physics Bldg/SU
                                                        Syracuse, NY 13244-1130
"It's only a dream away ..." -- from Time Bandits ending credits song
"... Nature cannot be fooled." -- Richard Feynman

ellers@cs.mu.oz.au (Ecce Homo) (02/28/91)

In article <3227@canisius.UUCP> pavlov@canisius.UUCP (Greg Pavlov) writes:

>    1. the rumor mills claim that the 2100/3100 set will be supplanted by new
>       machine(s) Real Soon Now;

Heard it runs  a 20mhz r3000 with a slowed down turbo-channel. 
Don't think the 2100/3100 will go away though.
Also heard a 40mhz 5000 is on the way.

>
>    2. unlike SUN or HP, DEC isn't much on offering upgrade kits.

Can recall some mention of DEC doing something here but can't remember 
the details.


Ecce
--