eam@soleil.UUCP (Ed A. Mills) (01/09/90)
We find ourselves with a VAX 6410, a VAX-Station 3100, and a 42" Versatec plotter with no apparent way to interconnect the plotter to either host. Please send me mail if anyone knows how to efficiently (cheeply) connect the plotter to one or both hosts? My DEC Rep sugggested I buy another VAX as a plot server. PLEEESEEE! There must be a better way!? Ed Mills Harris Semi Melbourne, FL
tihor@acf4.NYU.EDU (Stephen Tihor) (01/09/90)
Best case you use the 3100's "modem" port; worst case you get a generic terminal server or a DMB.
grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) (01/09/90)
In article <894@soleil.UUCP> eam@soleil.UUCP (Ed A. Mills) writes: > We find ourselves with a VAX 6410, a VAX-Station 3100, and a 42" Versatec > plotter with no apparent way to interconnect the plotter to either host. > Please send me mail if anyone knows how to efficiently (cheeply) connect > the plotter to one or both hosts? Ya didn't say VMS or Ultrix, so I'll assume you mean Ultrix. I see a few options - 1) get DEC to admit whether the Ultrix Unibus stuff still works on the 6400 series even though it's "not supported". The BI->Unibus hardware is the same as on other BI based systems so there's no obvious reason why not. 2) Buy a Versatec VPS ethernet plotter server... 3? Buy a used 750 for a song, or if Versatec has a Q-bus I/F a Microvax II. You could also probably pick up a Sun 2 and a Sytek plotter interface pretty cheap. 4? Investigate 3-rd party plotter controllers. There's something called (I think) as KMW box that is frequently used in the PC world that provides a serial/parallel I/F. I don't know if there's anything SCSI or the like available. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
tihor@acf4.NYU.EDU (Stephen Tihor) (01/09/90)
One exists but its a bad idea to use it if you need to. Surely Versatec makes some host adaptor other than a UNIBUS board?
ereiamjh@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Tom B O'toole) (01/09/90)
In article <894@soleil.UUCP> eam@soleil.UUCP (Ed A. Mills) writes: >My DEC Rep sugggested I buy another VAX as a plot server. PLEEESEEE! There >must be a better way!? If the versatec can only be connected via unibus, and you really need it, then I think your DEC rep is right. The unibus adapter will set you back a lot, even if you have the slots on the BI to add the adapter, and buy a cheap unibus backplane and cabinet from a used dealer. If you need to expand your BI, then you are really getting into big money. Unfortunately the unibus adapter works best on a dedicated BI, and having one on a BI being shared with a lot of other I/O can hurt the other devices performance. If you check with the used dealers, I bet you will find that you can get a complete vax 730 system for under 2K. Then you can place the device on the 730 and run async decnet between the two machines (or spring for an ethernet controller for better performance). I agree that this is kind of messy, but it is a last resort if you really need this particular (unibus only) plotter. And it is still a lot cheaper than getting into the unibus adapter hassle if this is the only piece of unibus equipment you need on the system. -- Tom O'Toole - ecf_stbo@jhuvms.bitnet "Internet is the wide area network JHUVMS system programmer protocol packaged with TCP/IP that unix systems Homewood Computing Facilities rely on to communicate remotely with each other" Johns Hopkins University, Balto. Md. 21218 -Digital Review
tamura@versatc.versatec.COM (Mark Tamura) (01/10/90)
In <894@soleil.UUCP>, eam@soleil.UUCP (Ed A. Mills) writes, > We find ourselves with a VAX 6410, a VAX-Station 3100, and a 42" Versatec > plotter with no apparent way to interconnect the plotter to either host. If these machines are running ULTRIX, use another Unix machine on the network to do remote line printing. These machines include a Sun-3 or Sun-4 under SunOS 3.X or 4.X with VME, VAX or MicroVAX under ULTRIX with Q-bus or Unibus. Upgrade your RPM to a ethernet plot server. Talk to Versatec sales about future products. -mt -- Versatec, A Xerox Company ARPA: Mark_S_Tamura.SCB1Versatec@Xerox.COM 2710 Walsh Avenue, MS 1-7 UUCP: {ames,apple,pyramid}!versatc!tamura P.O. Box 58091 AT&T: (408)988-2800 x5202 Santa Clara, CA 95052-8091
grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) (01/10/90)
In article <894@soleil.UUCP> eam@soleil.UUCP (Ed A. Mills) writes: > We find ourselves with a VAX 6410, a VAX-Station 3100, and a 42" Versatec > plotter with no apparent way to interconnect the plotter to either host. Please remember to specify minor detail like which operating system you are using... In this case the solution set varies considerably depending on whether you prefer Ultrix or VMS. In this case, I think you've gotten both sets - I assumed Ultrix since with VMS you simple pay $$$ and get the BI-Unibus I/F and whatnot... BTW, we went with the VPS solution a while back and it seems to work pretty well. Of course it's many months later and we're still waiting for Versatec to deliver a version of their Scicards/Fastplot software that knows how to talk to the thing... You get HPGL and a nice speedup over the REP or software based rasterizers. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
Frank.Mallory@f123.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Frank Mallory) (01/10/90)
EA> We find ourselves with a VAX 6410, a VAX-Station 3100, and a 42" EA> Versatec EA> plotter with no apparent way to interconnect the plotter to either EA> host. EA> Please send me mail if anyone knows how to efficiently (cheeply) EA> connect EA> the plotter to one or both hosts? Do you have a Unibus controller for the plotter? -- Frank Mallory at The Black Cat's Shack (Fidonet 1:109/401) Internet: Frank.Mallory@f123.n109.z1.fidonet.org UUCP: ...!uunet!blkcat!123!Frank.Mallory
carroll@bcsaic.UUCP (Jeff Carroll) (01/11/90)
In article <894@soleil.UUCP> eam@soleil.UUCP (Ed A. Mills) writes: >My DEC Rep sugggested I buy another VAX as a plot server. PLEEESEEE! There >must be a better way!? >Ed Mills I recently asked my DEC rep how he would operate LAT and TCP on the same Ethernet, and he recommended I buy another VAX as a TCP terminal server. Digital has it now. Jeff Carroll Boeing D&SG carroll@atc.boeing.com