tom@litle.COM (Tom Hampton) (12/13/89)
I was hoping someone out there might be experimenting with X terminals for a DEC 3100. Here are my questions: 1) How many can one run from a single 3100? 2) Do you recommend a particular brand of terminal? 3) Does third party software (e.g. Interleaf) work OK from X? Thanks! ----- Tom Hampton tom@litle.com Litle & Co. FAX:603 795 2054 P.O. Box 247 Lyme, NH 03768
klein@lupine.UUCP (12/14/89)
I was hoping someone out there might be experimenting with X terminals for a DEC 3100. I use a DECsystem 3100 for my home system, with X terminals for each user. The configuration includes 16 mbytes of RAM, a 100 mbyte internal disc, and a 600 mbyte external disc. 1) How many can one run from a single 3100? We run 8 "normal" users, (i.e., this is their home system), and miscellaneous tasks that other network users seem to migrate over to our system. My group is technical support for the company, and we tend to do a wide mixture of chores with the system, ranging from compiling programs and testing applications down to simply reading our mail and writing memos. While we have experienced some rather odd problems under heavy load, I attribute them to something unique on our system, (either funky hardware or software, I don't know which), and our overall impression of the machine in this configuration is very good. Response is typically excellent. If I were to add anything, it would be RAM. X applications *really* like having lots of memory in the host. We bought a couple more for running our manufacturing tests, which can involve up to a hundred terminals being driven overnight from one system. The usual caveat applies, though: your mileage is *extremely* dependant on the application!! It doesn't take much to bring *any* system to its knees! 2) Do you recommend a particular brand of terminal? IMHO, the NCD is the best :-) *Obviously* a biased opinion. 3) Does third party software (e.g. Interleaf) work OK from X? I have only seen Interleaf briefly, so I'll not comment on it. Other software we have tried seems to work fine. Most of the 3rd party vendors we have been working with over the past year or so have been making excellent progress on both compatibility and performance. We saw lots of broken software at the beginning of the year; this is very infrequent now. Doug Klein NCD