[comp.sys.next] Multiple 030 boards in a cube: Can it be done?

michael@ewa.cs.ucla.edu (michael gersten) (03/26/91)

I am looking at getting a used cube, or a new slab. What
I was wondering was, could I buy a few used 030 boards from
someone's upgrade to a 40, and plug it into the cube?

My thoughts are:
$2600	used cube
$ 300	used 030 board
$ 150	spare floppy :-)
------
$3150   Usable system with the power of a 040 board
	(I have a spare 54 meg disk partition for a swap
	disk, if I can figure out how to tell NeXT to
	only use part of a disk).

Compared to $3300 for a 105 meg 040, this is reasonable;
addmittedly, both will need a new hard drive later, but
this way I save another $150, and get two CPU's. So, the
questions are:

1. Are two 030's as powerful as an 040?
2. Does Next Mach support two cpu's?
3. Does the hardware?
4. If I do this, will I be able to use
   ** all 4 serial ports on both boards **
   (this is the biggest thing for me; SCSI serial
   ports are not cheap, and 2 is not enough)

Please reply by mail; I do not read this group reliably.

dc4f+@andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel Crimmins) (03/27/91)

you all remember that you're supposed to send those '030 boards back to
next, right??

as part of the upgrade deal, the old '030 boards become the property of
next computer, and are to be returned.  if there are old '030 boards
floating around, i would think these would be considered stolen property
of some sort.

PLEASE, do not consider ripping off next by keeping your '030 boards!!
they really do have uses for them, and i can't believe people are able
to brush aside their ethics enough to keep something that's not theirs.
just my 2 cents...