joseph@panix.uucp (Joseph R. Skoler) (05/01/91)
Does anyone know anything about the Wang VS-80 mainframe? I was offered one cheap and would like to know a little about it. Any information or leads to information would be appreciated. I'd like to know if there is a Unix for it? If it's printers and/or disk drives are SCSI? etc. Thanks, Joseph R. Skoler UUCP: cmcl2!panix!kc2yu!joseph UUCP: panix!joseph BITNET: skohc@cunyvm.bitnet INTERNET: ak526@cleveland.freenet.edu AMPR NET: kc2yu@kc2yu.ampr.org [44.68.32.56] PBBS: kc2yu@nn2z.nj.usa.na
jkubicky@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Joseph J. Kubicky) (05/01/91)
joseph@panix.uucp (Joseph R. Skoler) writes: >Does anyone know anything about the Wang VS-80 mainframe? >I was offered one cheap and would like to know a little about it. >Any information or leads to information would be appreciated. >I'd like to know if there is a Unix for it? If it's printers >and/or disk drives are SCSI? etc. I worked for a small data-processing house that used a VS-85 as it's main machine. The thing was, IMHO, a dog. The basic architecture was along the lines of the 370 family. I don't know about UNIX, but they were running the standard Wang VS operating system that supported a volume/library/file file system; that is, once you specified which disk your file was on, you had a single level of subdirectories. All the terminals were special Wang terminals - generic VT100-types couldn't be used. This place was using the thing for COBOL and WP, and it worked ok for them, but I wouldn't recommend it as a general-purpose machine (when I worked there, I don't know if there was even a C compiler available). Jay Kubicky
tedg@apollo.HP.COM (Ted Grzesik) (05/07/91)
In article <1991Apr30.214659.22978@panix.uucp> joseph@panix.uucp (Joseph R. Skoler) writes: >Does anyone know anything about the Wang VS-80 mainframe? > >I was offered one cheap and would like to know a little about it. > >Any information or leads to information would be appreciated. > >I'd like to know if there is a Unix for it? If it's printers >and/or disk drives are SCSI? etc. > I used to work at Wang in the Languages group. Unless you plan to use it as a COBOL/Data processing/WP system for multiple users, avoid it. Wang did create a version of UNIX called IN/IX, but it's a bare bones version of the OS. To use serial terminals you need a special option card, so getting IN/IX is probably out of the question since Wang would charge you a LOT for the serial I/O card. I think a 286 PC would probably execute faster than that CPU. It's real strength is I/O. The I/O processors are very intelligent, which make it quite good for a typical Data Processing application. The CPU is not geared for scientific applications. 'nuff said. The system is good for what it was intended for: writing and executing COBOL programs. Other languages on native VS OS include C, FORTRAN, PL/1, RPG, and Ada. Any Unix person would be hopelessly distressed using the native VS OS. However, Wang didn't get to be a multi-billion $ company by making totally useless machines. They just don't fit the paradigm of a Unix hacker. FYI, Ted Grzesik Ted Grzesik Hewlett-Packard Company Massachusetts Language Lab Chelmsford, MA (508) 256-6600 x5959 tedg@apollo.hp.com Ted Grzesik tedg@apollo.hp.com "Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities." -- Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)