grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) (06/28/89)
Has anybody heard any intersting stories about when DEC will be
supporting any more than dual processors on the 6000 series?
What's the problem? Is DEC just being coy? Or are we really
waiting on major OS rework as suggested by the "Ultrix Threads"
paper at Usenix?
It's rather hard to convince managment that a 6000 series machine
now will give incremental upgradability when DEC isn't making any
commitment to run Ultrix on the higher end machines.
I'd do a bit of handwaving, but it seems despite all the polite
noises DEC makes about commitment to Ultrix, when they decide
there is something they don't want to support under Ultrix,
you're going to be a long time waiting before you see anything.
Secondary questions:
Anybody out there running Ultrix on a 6000 series machine? I'd
be interested in comments, especially from anybody who's added
processors or upgraded from a 6200 to 6300. What kind of improvment
did you get from adding a second processor or upgrading CPU?
My current thought are around picking up a used 6210 or 6220 and
adding more processors as justifications can be generated and
perhaps upgrading to a 6400 in the distant future. My priorty is
maintaining response time in a timesharing/fileserver environment
as opposed to raw applications MIPS.
The alternative would be to snag the 8600 our VMS types are using
if they get a 64x0 (they do need application MIPS). From the
perspective of the 785 I've got now, that 8600 looks really nice,
however it's only 4-6 times as "powerful" and it looks like I'll
have to add 2 extra cabinets just to attach the massbus/unibus
stuff that all fits in the basic 780 cabinetry!
--
George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net
Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)rwood@granite.dec.com (Richard Wood) (06/30/89)
In article <7153@cbmvax.UUCP> grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) writes: > > Has anybody heard any intersting stories about when DEC will be > supporting any more than dual processors on the 6000 series? > Let's add this up: - Digital has made commitments many times that SMP for ULTRIX is in engineering. - In the more recent past has suggested that it is in the next major release. - Digital's Ultrix product general has a "major release" every other time, interleaved with bug-fix releases. - The last major release was at the beginning of this year. - The most recent "minor release" is shipping now (version 3.1). - Digital tends to have releases every six months or so, historically speaking. I don't believe I've stated anything you couldn't find out with a little homework in the media of the past few months, yet a little elementary logic will provide you with what one might consider a decent guess. Of course, I'm not speaking officially - especially since I haven't said anything. You didn't even see this message. You are at home, sleeping! > Secondary questions: Ask your DEC sales rep about "reference sites" if you want DEC's response on this. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Wood Digital Equipment Corporation Palo Alto, Calif ================================================================================