earle@poseur.jpl.nasa.gov (Greg Earle - Sun JPL on-site Software Support) (11/08/89)
>1. I could get a Sparcstation1 from Sun, to run off the disk on my >machine. Unfortunately, although Sparcstations use the same chip, they >apparently use a different memory management scheme at the moment and so >I'd have to duplicate a huge amount of Unix code to be able to run it. Whatever gives you that idea? To add a SPARCstation-1 as a diskless client of a Sun-4, one merely installs the SunOS 4.0.3c `/usr' files (Sun-4c_Usr) on top of the existing Sun-4 binaries (they are upwardly compatible), and then one installs the Sun-4c specific `kvm' binaries (the ones that have to deal with that `different memory management scheme' and - more importantly - the other kernel architecture differences, like the S-bus) into a separate directory that the SPARCstation-1 mounts. Those separate files take up a whole whopping 2.085 Mbytes of disk space. Combine that with the 7 Mb root filesystem for the client, and the default 14+ Mbyte swap space, and you'll have used up less than 25 Mbytes of disk space to serve the diskless Sun-4/60. >Besides, these things are pretty expensive. Naahhh. A diskless SPARCstation-1, especially monochrome, is hardly expensive. Since you work for a government institute, NCI probably gets the standard Sun Government discount, which means SPARCstation-1's cost almost nothing. JPL is buying them hand over fist these days, which is helping to make my life more complicated (see below) :^) The cost of an NCD X Terminal is hardly negligible, either. And it sounds like the ImageSoft software that you speak of will only allow previewing of PostScript documents and figures in an X window; this is something that you can get for free these days. On the other hand, if you were to run Sun's OpenWindows (X11/NeWS) software on a diskless SPARCstation-1, you get the power of NeWS and the ability to use NeWS' PostScript capabilities in your X11 windows. Disclaimer: I work for Sun. Of course I'm biased. But your reason #1 has no basis in fact, and I don't think that your reason #2 has sufficient capability for what you really want for your student. (But these are still my opinions only; I do not speak for Sun.) - Greg Earle Sun Microsystems, Inc. - JPL on-site Software Support earle@poseur.JPL.NASA.GOV (Direct) earle@Sun.COM (Indirect)
Kemp@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (11/10/89)
In response to: >> Besides, these things [SPARCstation-1's] are pretty expensive. Greg Earle replies: > Naahhh. A diskless SPARCstation-1, especially monochrome, is hardly > expensive. Since you work for a government institute, NCI probably > gets the standard Sun Government discount, which means SPARCstation-1's > cost almost nothing. That used to be true. I just found out that our Government discount has been cut almost in half. That's not to say they aren't still a great deal, it's just that their cost is a little farther from nothing than it was before. Our standard unit of currency is the SS-1 now. For example, a particular software package that used to cost $xx,xxx now costs 2.5 SS-1's. Any software that is less than 1 SS-1 is relatively easy to justify; anything more than that had better be pretty d*mn good if we are going to deprive an engineer or two of a desktop workstation in order to buy it. Dave Kemp <Kemp@dockmaster.ncsc.mil>