Sun-Spots-Request@RICE.EDU (Vicky Riffle) (05/04/87)
SUN-SPOTS DIGEST Monday, 4 May 1986 Volume 5 : Issue 11
Today's Topics:
Re: Screen Saver for Sun-3's
Warning: IPC board
68881 & 3/50s
Resolution?
Project Management Software?
benchmarking the FPA?
SUN's and PC's?
RCS on Sun 3.2?
Looking for experience with Sunlink/DNA?
Generating Sun2 binaries on a Sun3?
bibtex for suns?
Screen editor for X Windows?
Sun-1/Sun-2 framebuffer mmap problem?
Sun Software?
special sun ucode for the emulex md21?
Eikonix Camera on the Sun?
games request?
CD disk readers for SUNs?
Sun NFS for 4.3 - MtXinu or what?
3/75 SCSI controller?
Public domain graphics software?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 87 15:53:02 EST
From: trinkle@purdue.edu (Dan Trinkle)
Subject: Re: Screen Saver for Sun-3's
I just start /usr/bin/screenblank in /etc/rc.local. It works
very nicely, independent of logins, etc.
Daniel Trinkle trinkle@cs.purdue.edu ARPA
Computer Science Department trinkle%purdue.edu@relay.cs.net CSNET
Purdue University {ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!purdue!trinkle UUCP
West Lafayette, IN 47907 (317) 494-7844 PHONE
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 87 16:09:09 +0200
From: mcvax!olsen!nagler@seismo.css.gov (Robert Nagler)
Subject: Warning: IPC board
We recently purchased 3 Sun IPC boards. They are AT clones that plug
into the VME bus and let you pop up a DOS window on your Sun workstation.
At this time, it is impossible for us to use them. We were sold equipment
which is absolutely useless to a very common Sun configuration: 3/50s and
3/180s.
Important: you need a Multi-Access (sometimes called Multi-user) license
to use these boards for *any* network access unlike all other Sun products
such as tape drives, disk drives, etc. You see, we thought that multi-access
meant more than one person or machine. Alas, Sun is starting to use the same
dictionary as IBM (maybe this is why Sun's stock is climbing).
There is not much you can do about this. If you have model 3/50s and 3/180s
(even if you only have one workstation), you have to buy a multi-access license.
I wouldn't mind if Sun had called it Ethernet access, but they didn't. Note,
however, that an IPC board is just like a tape drive, only one process
(or server/client pair) can use it at any given time. This "multi-access"
service is just as if Sun were to package "rsh" as a separate product and
sell their tape drives with a Multi-access option.
Rob Nagler
------------------------------
Date: 27 Apr 87 08:50 EST
From: montnaro%sprite.tcpip@ge-crd.arpa (Skip Montnaro)
Subject: 68881 & 3/50s
In Sun-Spots v5n9, Henry Spencer made some comments about the the 68881
clock speed and mask level found when running mc68881version. It made me
curious, so I decided to check into it.
Fortunately, our local hosts file is commented with machine type for each
node, so it's a simple job to pick out the Sun-3s. I attempted to run
mc68881version on all the machines stated to be Sun-3s. I got data on 69 of
the little (and not so little) buggers. (This was all done early Saturday
evening while things were reasonably quiet.) Here's the story:
Mask level A79J: 10 machines broken down as follows:
3/50 (1)
3/75 (3)
3/160 (5)
3/180 (1)
All but the 3/50 had clock frequencies of about 12.5 MHz. The reported clock
frequency for the 3/50 was 16.2 MHz. (I ran it twice to be sure.) The slower
clock speeds on the other machines seem right, since most of them are older
CPUs which used to ship with the slower FP coprocessor (my guess just by
knowing the machine names).
The remainder (59) were mask level A93N, broken down as follows:
3/50 (21)
3/75 (15)
3/110 (1)
3/160 (8)
3/180 (4)
3/260 (9)
3/280 (1)
Of the 200's, one reported a clock frequency of 19.6 MHz. The rest were
either 20.1 MHz or 20.3 MHz.
The 75's, 110, 160's, and 180's all reported speeds between 15.8 and 16.8
MHz. The 50's reported speeds between 15.9 and 17.0 MHz.
It seems odd that the 50's should all have such high clock speeds. Isn't
the nominal clock speed of the 3/50's CPU 15 MHz? I suppose the 68881 can be
run faster than the CPU. Perhaps mc68881version has a bug in it that causes
it to report an erroneously high frequency. If not, perhaps 50's are being
shipped at somewhat higher than the rated speeds, and Dave Erickson's
question in the same digest about plugging in faster chips is moot. Does
someone have an mc68020version program that reports the approximate clock
speed of the 68020?
Regarding Dave's question, it seems like the big win with the 3/50's would
be figuring out a way to boost the memory so they don't page so much (and in
turn, don't beat on our ethernet so much). The difference between 4 and 8
MBytes is amazing. Has anybody done that? At $5000 I suspect Sun will be
selling the 3/50 faster than ever. Maybe someone will come out with a
"Monster 3/50" like the memory upgrades for the early Macs.
Skip ARPA: montanaro@ge-crd.arpa
Montanaro UUCP: montanaro@desdemona.steinmetz.ge.com
(518)387-7312 GE DECnet: advax::"montanaro@desdemona.steinmetz.ge.com"
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 87 16:48:53 EST
From: kbb%cs.brown.edu@relay.cs.net (Karl Berry)
Subject: Resolution?
Does anyone know the real resolution (pixels per inch/millimeter)
of the standard Sun monitor? Or even better, tell me a place in the
documentation to look so that I can see it in print for myself?
Thanks,
Karl.
kbb@cs.brown.edu {decvax,ihnp4}!brunix!kbb
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 87 18:03:38 est
From: berger%datacube.UUCP@cca.cca.com (Bob Berger)
Subject: Project Management Software?
I continue to be in search of a good Project Management package for the
Sun. I would like to find something as good as or better than the Micro
Planner Plus (which is available for the MACINTOSH).
I am looking for a package that can:
Handle the management of many resources
Have separate calanders for each resource
Support Load / Resource balancing
Allow easy "What If" exploration
Allow easy updating of the schedule
Support Gant and Pert charts
Support Postscript ouptut
Support HP - GL plotter output
Support Graphical input and manipulation via Mouse
Allow textual input and manipulation as well.
Support a variety of dependency relationships
I am currently evaluating MicroTrak from Softrak Systems and I am not
too impressed with it. It is completely textually based, seems hard to
"play" with for doing "what if".
Bob Berger
Datacube Inc. Systems / Software Group 4 Dearborn Rd. Peabody, Ma 01960
VOICE: 617-535-6644; FAX: (617) 535-5643; TWX: (710) 347-0125
UUCP: ihnp4!datacube!berger
{seismo,cbosgd,cuae2,mit-eddie}!mirror!datacube!berger
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 87 13:12
From: ROHLICEK@v1.bbn.com (Robin Rohlicek)
Subject: benchmarking the FPA?
I am trying to benchmark a Sun 3 with FPA and have some questions:
1) can anyone direct me to a set of good benchmarks? I have the LINPACK
benchmarks done at Argonne.
2) what do I have to do to make the FPA work "fast". I think my
benchmark is generating lots of underflows which are probably
causing floating point exceptions. What are issues involved
in setting up the floating point options. What specific compiler
switches and/or inline code need to be included to make best use
of the FPA?
Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Robin Rohlicek
(ROHLICEK@BBN.COM)
PS: please reply directly since I am not on the Sun-Spots distribution list.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 87 22:15 EDT
From: ABSTINE%CLVMS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu (AB Stine)
Subject: SUN's and PC's?
Does anybody have any feeling for the performance of approx 12 diskless
3/50's and a server on the same ethernet with upwards to 80 or so
PC's and a couple of other machines? Our engineering school wants to string
all these systems together in one single network. I would like to
know what people's experiences or feelings on such an idea are.
art stine
systems programmer
clarkson u
------------------------------
Date: 24 Apr 87 21:05:31 GMT
From: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Michael Khaw)
Subject: RCS on Sun 3.2?
Does the RCS code from Purdue compile and run on Sun-3, OS release 3.2?
If not, does anyone have patches to make it work?
Thanks,
Mike Khaw
--
internet: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.arpa
usenet: {hplabs|sun|ucbvax|decwrl|sri-unix}!mkhaw%teknowledge-vaxc.arpa
USnail: Teknowledge Inc, 1850 Embarcadero Rd, POB 10119, Palo Alto, CA 94303
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 87 13:42:49 est
From: ihnp4!tropix!mjl@sally.utexas.edu (Mike Lutz)
Subject: Looking for experience with Sunlink/DNA?
We just got our Sun 3/260, and are considering connecting it
to our Vax systems running VMS. Before we plunk down the money for
Sunlink/DNA (Sun's DECNET support), we'd like some feedback from
current users on a) reliability, b) ease of use (we have a large
community of lens designers, who have little patience with computers
systems that make it hard for them to design lenses), and c) support
from Sun. Any and all information gratefully accepted.
Thanks,
Mike Lutz
UUCP: seismo!rochester!tropix!mjl
Internet: tropix!mjl@seismo.css.gov (good luck)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 87 19:08:29 EDT
From: mlandau@diamond.bbn.com (Matt Landau)
Subject: Generating Sun2 binaries on a Sun3?
Has anyone managed to set things up so that a Sun3 can generate Sun2
binaries? We've tried a number of things ranging from the very simple to
the very elaborate (like moving all the Sun2 compiler passes, assembler,
loader, and libraries to the Sun3), but even though a program compiles and
links without error (and claims to be a Sun2 executable to find), it
either dumps core ("illegal instruction") or hangs when run on a Sun2.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 87 14:23 EDT
From: JUDD%cs.umass.edu@relay.cs.net (Stephen Judd)
Subject: bibtex for suns?
I have a copy of bibtex written by Patashnik 1985/9/5 which
works fine on a vax but not on a Sun. Does anyone know of a version
that works on Suns?
thanks
Stephen Judd (JUDD@Umass.csnet)
------------------------------
Date: 28 Apr 87 02:14:16 GMT
From: hope%gatech.gatech.edu@relay.cs.net (Theodore Hope)
Subject: Screen editor for X Windows?
Does there exist a mouse-based screen editor that runs under X windows?
I'm talking about something similar to the "textedit" tool that runs
under SunWindows.
Please reply via mail. Thanks in advance.
--
Theodore Hope
School of Information & Computer Science, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet: Hope@gatech ARPA: Hope@Gatech.EDU
uucp: ...!{akgua,decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!hope
------------------------------
Date: 28 Apr 87 15:32:21 GMT
From: ji@morningside.columbia.edu (John Ioannidis)
Subject: Sun-1/Sun-2 framebuffer mmap problem?
The following program memory-maps the framebuffer on a Sun:
It runs fine on Sun-2's with the bwtwo framebuffer (both Multibus and VME
machines), but it crashes my Sun-1's (which use the bwone framebuffer). Now,
there should be a way to use the bwone, because I can run suntools on it.
Can anyone tell me what's wrong? Has anyone successfully used mmap(2) to
memory-map the sun-1 framebuffer?
/*
* NAME
* flash
*
* USAGE
* flash r|w <file>
*
* DESCRIPTION
* flash w <file> will dump the contents of the screen in a file.
* flash r <file> will read that file and momentarily flash it
* on the screen. Great for practical jokes.
*/
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <sun/fbio.h>
#include <stdio.h>
main(argc, argv)
int argc;
char **argv;
{
int fb, im, sz, ret, i;
unsigned long *fbuffer, *tempim, *saveim;
unsigned long *c;
struct fbtype myinfo;
/*
* We are opening /dev/fb so it shouldn't matter what
* framebuffer we have. Opening /dev/bwone0 won't help either
*/
fb = open("/dev/fb", 2);
if ( fb < 0 )
perror("opening framebuffer"), exit(-1);
im = open(argv[2], 2);
if ( im < 0 )
perror("opening file"), exit(-1);
ret = ioctl(fb, FBIOGTYPE, &myinfo);
sz = myinfo.fb_size;
fprintf(stderr, "size of fb is 0x%x or %d\n", sz, sz);
fbuffer = (unsigned long *) valloc(sz);
fprintf(stderr, "pages start at %x\n", fbuffer);
tempim = (unsigned long *) valloc(sz);
fprintf(stderr, "temp start at %x\n", tempim);
saveim = (unsigned long *) valloc(sz);
fprintf(stderr, "save start at %x\n", saveim);
ret = mmap( fbuffer, sz, 7, MAP_SHARED,
fb, 0 );
if ( ret < 0 )
perror("mapping memory"), exit(1);
if (argv[1][0] == 'w')
write(im, fbuffer, sz);
else
{
bcopy(fbuffer,saveim, sz);
read(im, tempim, sz);
bcopy(tempim, fbuffer, sz);
bcopy(saveim, fbuffer, sz);
}
close(fb);
}
#include <appropriate_disclaimers>
VOICE: +1 212 280 5510 ARPA: ioannidis@cs.columbia.EDU
USnail: John Ioannidis ji@garfield.columbia.EDU
450 Computer Science
Columbia University, USENET: ...{seismo|topaz}!
New York, NY 10027 columbia!garfield!ji
... It's all Greek to me!
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 87 19:18:47 cdt
From: pml%usl.csnet@relay.cs.net (Patrick Landry)
Subject: Sun Software?
I am in the process of acquiring software for a network
of Sun3s. Most everything is taken care of but I need suggestions/references
on a couple of things.
1) Spreadsheets. I've inquired about 20/20 and a couple others
from the vendors but I'd like to know what real users are using.
2) Calendar Mgmt. I would like to find a Sunwindows-based calendar
tool to schedule appointments and reminders. Pop-up reminders
are very high on the want-list. Integration with Suntools is
also very high.
3) Message tool. Are real users out there using mailtool and regular
unix mail transports? This seems to be acceptable but I'm interested
to hear from anyone who has seen better.
4) Other neat tools. Have any other neat tools you want to tell me about??
For all of the above, vendor names, addresses, phone numbers, contact
names, etc. would be helpful. Please respond to me directly as our news
feed is undergoing some change and I'm not sure if we are currently
receiving this group. Thanks.
---patrick---
ut-sally \ Patrick Landry
!usl!pml The Center for Advanced Computer Studies
akgua / University of Southwestern Louisiana
pml%usl@csnet-relay
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 87 17:23:49 edt
From: seismo!decvax!savax!dove@sally.utexas.edu (Webster Dove)
Subject: special sun ucode for the emulex md21?
Does anyone know how the Sun version of the Emulex md21 scsi/esdi
adapter differs from the Emulex version? Apparently, Sun has
proprietary "rev C" ucode that Emulex can't deliver to end users.
I want to use a maxtor ext-4380 and Emulex md21 on a 3/110 (a
configuration that Sun doesn't currently offer, and I am wondering
whether the Sun software will fail because of ucode differences.
Anyone in Sun Consulting care to comment?
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 87 11:14:11 edt
From: ajb%mwcamis@mitre.arpa (Alan J. Broder)
Subject: Eikonix Camera on the Sun?
We have an Eikonix Image Digitizer Camera hooked up to our VAX 11/785
UNIBUS via something akin to a DR11W interface. We would like to dump the
VAX and hook up the Eikonix to a Sun3/180. I would be interested in hearing
from anyone who has already done this, or anyone who has suggestions
as to how to best solve the problem.
Thanks
Alan J Broder
ajb@mitre.arpa
------------------------------
Date: 30 Apr 1987 2027-EDT (Thursday)
From: ajw%beach.cis.ufl.edu@relay.cs.net (Andy Wilcox)
Subject: games request?
We're new to suns, and we love 'em. But a question has come up, which I am
repeating here. Anybody have (or heard of) any good
multi-player-over-the-ethernet games for the 3's?
Any replies appreciated, thanks.
Andy Wilcox
ajw@beach.cis.ufl.edu
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 May 87 13:47:45 EST
From: mckay@courageous.ecn.purdue.edu (Dwight D McKay)
Subject: CD disk readers for SUNs?
A research here would like to experiment with databases stored on CD disks.
These are prerecorded disks, no writing capability is needed.
Is there a CD disk reader available for SUN workstations? Perhaps as an SCSI
device? I believe the stuff he would like to be able to read is on the
conventional 4'' or so CDs.
--Dwight Mckay, ECN Workstation Software Support
[arpanet: mckay@ee.ecn.purdue.edu, usenet: ...ihnp4!pur-ee!mckay]
[Compu-serve: 75776,1521, office: EE 348B, phone: (317) 494-3561]
------------------------------
Date: 29 Apr 87 09:50:56 GMT
From: ubc-vision!calgary!vuwcomp!cantuar!robert@seismo.css.gov (Robert Biddle)
Subject: Sun NFS for 4.3 - MtXinu or what?
We have 4.3BSD on our Vax, but are now keen on Suns, and have got our
first one going. We have thin-wire ethernet connecting the Sun
and the Vax, and all is happy. But of course we want to run NFS too -
initially to give the Sun more space, later to give the Vax more space
when we get a nice file server. We actually thought we had NFS for the Vax
somewhere, but of course no. Sun, who had assured us this would be no
problem, do not seem to want us to get Vax NFS from them, but point to
Mt. Xinu. Who indeed are happy to give us an attractive educational institute
deal. But even its probably low price (US$3000) is more than we can
easily spring for, and it would require us to upgrade our ATT license too.
So we would appreciate advice: is there any reasonable alternative?
I suspect this is old hat to most readers, so reply by mail please,
and I'll post a summary if anything of wider interest turns up.
[We are quite new to Usenet, and this is our first posting, so if this
posting is odd in any way, please be gentle in explaining!-) ]
Robert Biddle Tel. +64 3 482 009 x8352
robert@cantuar.{nz,uccp} ...!{watmath,munnari,mcvax,vuwcomp}!cantuar!robert
Computer Science, University Of Canterbury, Christchurch, Aotearoa/New Zealand
------------------------------
Date: Sun 3 May 87 14:25:04-PDT
From: ROODE@bionet-20.arpa (David Roode)
Subject: 3/75 SCSI controller?
The 3/75 SCSI controller used to piggy back on the card in the 3/75
expansion slot. Has anyone used one of these piggy back cards on a
brand-X memory card? Has anyone used one in a 3/140? Since the 3/140
has 2 expansion slots, they could be used for memory expansion and SMD
disk controller cards, with a SCSI controller piggy backing to make the
3/140 into a file server. Has anyone done this?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 May 87 07:04:13 pdt
From: ssc-vax!ssc-bee!thornton@beaver.cs.washington.edu
Subject: Public domain graphics software?
Hello. I recently acquired a Sun 3/50 for my research and am interested
in conversing with others about hardware/software for the Sun. I am
particularly interested in any public domain software that may exist for
the machine, in particular software that runs under one of the Sun's
graphics environments.
Ken
------------------------------
End of SUN-Spots Digest
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