steve@fnord.umiacs.umd.edu (Steve D. Miller) (11/15/89)
Here's what I've seen so far on the latest (last week?) DEC announcements. I'm surprised that I haven't seen any other discussion; maybe we all read the wrong trade rags... In any case, I'll show you my half-confirmed rumors if you'll show me yours. (-: As always, this is correct to the best of my knowledge, but you should check with a Real DEC Employee before believing anything I've written below. (And if you find out that I'm wrong, please tell me!) ========= VAXstation 3100 model 38, 48 -- 40% faster CPU, same basic packaging as the other VS3100s. (Prolly near 4 MIPS) Can upgrade current 3100s to new models. New VS3100 model 30, 40 offerings -- add'l memory in new configs (new 8MB memory board?), 16" color, RZ56 disks as an option. New single-disk system, too. VR297 monitor -- 16" color, trinitron. New RZ56 disk -- 665MB; seems to come in 1 or 2 drive expansion boxes. No mention (?) of use on DECstations; sigh. Is full-height, 5.25" disk. Mean seek 16ms, mean access 24ms, 64KB buffer (readahead!?!), sync transfer rate of 4MB/s (yuh right). In new enclosure that looks a lot like the VAXstation system box; can hold one or two drives. Needs new VMS; Ultrix support at future date (though I betcha it works...) Peak xfer rate: 1.5MB/s. Max seek: 35MS. Mean rot latency: 8.3ms. Needs 1.3 amps at 5V, 2 amps at 12V. New printer -- didn't look into much. SCSI bus open for development -- docs on DEC's SCSI impl; VMS 5.3 gives SCSI port/class driver for driver development (I don't know what that means -- I'm no VMS guy, fer shur.) VS3100s and VS3520/40 covered initially. IEEE-488 to SCSI converter -- up to 14 488 boxes; 500K/s xfer rate; plug into SCSI on VS3100. S/W support under VMS only -- why? VMS 5.3 announced? ========= It will come as no big surprise that I'm trying to find out how much of this stuff is supported when grafted onto a DECstation, and when similar stuff (like the open SCSI bus) will be available on DECstations. -Steve Spoken: Steve Miller Domain: steve@umiacs.umd.edu UUCP: uunet!mimsy!steve Phone: +1-301-454-1808 USPS: UMIACS, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742