schneids@ssc-vax.UUCP (Jim Schneidewind) (04/14/84)
The following is from the April 9 issue of "Electronic Engineering
Times":
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"Commodore International Ltd. released four new microcomputers.....
The first new release is a Unix-based, 16-bit Z8000 computer system, with
256Kbytes of RAM, 80-column color graphics and built-in dual floppy-disk
drives. The drives are surprises because initial indications were that the
company would produce an under-$800 single-drive machine."
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I would guess that with 2 drives the price would be in the range of
$1000 to $1200. Can't wait to get one!!
Schneids
ssc-vax!schneidsdjc@sun.uucp (David J. Cardinal) (04/17/84)
UNIX's inability to run on floppy based systems seems to be related to its need to always touch the disk, and the lack of a disk cache in low end systems. (The obvious problem is that the user can screw up the disk and the cache by swapping floppies). Data General's MPOS epitomizes a system that is "UNIX-like" and combines the slowness with an inability to swap disks without explicit commands (ported from a hard-disk system, typically). On the other hand, the Quantum Software "QNX" system combines infrequent and relatively rapid disk access with a rock-solid file system (mostly due to simplicity). I don't know the tricks they have used, as I do not have source, but the result is a definite step forward in UNIX-like floppy based systems. (Note that QNX is not UNIX licensed, and is actually a pretty nifty message-passing kernel emulating UNIX so that people will buy it.) Thus the problem seems not to be with UNIX per se, but with implementations of operating systems developed on hard-disk systems and then thoughtlessly ported to floppies. --dave cardinal sun!djc
fair@dual.UUCP (Erik E. Fair) (04/22/84)
You may not want one once you check out its performance. I speak as one who
has used floppy based UNIX systems frequently enough to know that they are
S L O O O O O O O W W W W W W ! ! ! ! ! !
Ian Darwin, if you are reading this, you can make some more cogent comments,
and perhaps provide us with some colourful ancedotes.
Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucb-arpa.ARPA
dual!fair@Berkeley.ARPA
{ihnp4,ucbvax,cbosgd,decwrl,amd70,fortune,zehntel}!dual!fair
Dual Systems Corporation, Berkeley, California