glenn@uunet.uu.net (Glenn Herteg) (06/05/90)
Well, not to get alarmist :-), but that's how I read it, at least. I just got some material from Sun yesterday, and under "ALSO ANNOUNCED BY SUN" it says, SunCD Drive/SunOS on CD-ROM =========================== ... * Sun will distribute software exclusively on CD in 1991 Since I haven't heard anything about Sun supporting CD players on the Sun-3 line, I take this to mean it's unlikely they will support Sun-3 machines with their SVR4 release, unless they rush it to press this year. Or you'll have to have a SPARC machine and a CD player to load your new software ... a rude shock for anyone using a Sun-3 as a standalone machine. I suppose 60MB cartridges had to go the way of 8" floppies some day, but it really didn't seem like their useful life had ended quite yet. Aside from the revenue gained by selling everyone CD drives, I suspect the motivation for this change is primarily the low cost to manufacture the disks in volume, versus the slow and expensive process of writing tapes. If they're going to force all of us to buy these things, do they at least have a list of CD software titles (other than SunOS 4.1) distributed for (or otherwise compatible with) Sun machines?
rklatt@uunet.uu.net (Randolf E. Klatt) (06/07/90)
I am currently also experiencing a similar twinge of worry and I'm not sure I'm alone on this. Our company sells large turnkey computer complexes among which we include some Suns. The jobs currently going to the field have 3/260s, which were Sun's "screamers" when the contracts were signed. I am in charge of software/warranty support for some of these systems and am thus well aware of the "future" of CD-ROM. I asked my sales person to quote me CD drives for 3/260s so that I can support 4.1 and beyond. The "answer" from Sun is that they would be happy to get me CD drives but that I would have to install an external SCSI board in the 3/260 and that the drivers etc. would have to be tried to see if it would work. I'm assuming that this is the official line since it took several days to get this response, whereas usually we get good turnaround. Can somebody comment on a) the apparent lack of planning with respect to the 3-series machines (of which there must be quite a few still around) and b) the arm-twisting being done to Sun-3 users while Sun-4 users get discounts/incentives (I very much doubt Sun will offer "special" prices on SCSI boards on Sun-3s...) BTW, our 4.1 release tapes? still haven't arrived, despite agreements etc. with Sun. So we're still yelling. Randolf Klatt Westinghouse Electric ittc!rklatt@uunet.uu.net
jms@tardis.tymnet.com (Joe Smith) (06/12/90)
In article <8515@brazos.Rice.edu> iapsd!hopi!glenn@uunet.uu.net (Glenn Herteg) writes: >X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 196, message 16 >Since I haven't heard anything about Sun supporting CD players on the >Sun-3 line, I take this to mean it's unlikely they will support Sun-3 You really have nothing to base that conclusion on. I found a counterexample that says that Sun is supporting the Scsi Rom-disk (sr0) on Sun-3 systems. % cd /usr/kvm/sys/sun3/conf; grep 'sr0' GENER* GENERIC:disk sr0 at sc0 drive 060 flags 2 GENERIC:disk sr0 at se0 drive 060 flags 2 GENERIC:disk sr0 at si0 drive 060 flags 2 GENERIC_SMALL:disk sr0 at si0 drive 060 flags 2 Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: jms@tardis.tymnet.com or jms@gemini.tymnet.com BT Tymnet Tech Services | UUCP: ...!{ames,pyramid}!oliveb!tymix!tardis!jms PO Box 49019, MS-C41 | BIX: smithjoe | 12 PDP-10s still running! "POPJ P," San Jose, CA 95161-9019 | humorous dislaimer: "My Amiga speaks for me."