jordan@Morgan.COM (Jordan Hayes) (07/03/90)
I am interested in high-end "laptop" UNIX solutions. I have seen the Toshiba Sparc, but does it run SunOS? Can you even buy them in this country yet? At USENIX, I saw a guy with a Sony laptop that ran X (he plugged it into the show network so he could use kterm to read his mail over the Internet to Japan ... shesh! ;-). Is this a 4BSD box? I know Sony makes workstations that run 4BSD ... Any tips, etc. are appreciated. Thanks. /jordan
taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (07/03/90)
Hey Jordan! I've played around with the Toshiba SPARC laptop, and
it does indeed run straight SunOS. In fact, when I talked to the
engineers from Toshiba about some ideas for custom device drivers
(like a keyboard equivalent for mouse motion for those times you
don't want to hook the mouse up) they gave me a really weird look
and said that they had done *nothing* to SunOS to make it work.
Generally, though, the Toshiba SPARC laptop is an incredible machine,
a real state-of-the-art in laptop technology (though at 17+ pounds
you need a pretty tough lap!) The display, for example, had the
lowest persistance LCD I've ever seen...
I dunno about the Sony; it's quite possible that is only available
in Japan. You might call Sony Computers marketing and ask them.
Good luck.
-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California
taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylorstanh@meyerhof.iaims.bcm.tmc.edu (Stan Hanks) (07/03/90)
The Toshiba laptop is built under the SunOS licensing agreement between Toshiba and Sun, and there is no other OS I know for for SPARC, so its a pretty safe bet that they support SunOS. It is *NOT* available in the U.S., and if you import if from the Pacific rim, you void the warranty. I *still* want one. BTW, it's not the first Sun laptop -- there is a MILSPEC box from SAIC that has a 19" gas-plasma montior, a Sun-3E or -4E processor, a couple of hundred megabytes of disk, fits into a 4" Haliburton B-Zero briefcase, runs on batteries (albeit satellite batteries!) -- and only costs about $50,000. Stanley P. Hanks Director, Information Technology Planning and Development Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston TX 77030, Mail Stop: IR-3 e-mail: stanh@bcm.tmc.edu voice: (713) 798-4649 fax: (713) 798-3729
watson@spot.Eng.Sun.COM (Robert Watson) (07/05/90)
In article <1163@s5.Morgan.COM> jordan@Morgan.COM (Jordan Hayes) writes: >I am interested in high-end "laptop" UNIX solutions. I have seen the >Toshiba Sparc, but does it run SunOS? ...... Yes, it runs SunOS 4.0.3 -- Robert Watson watson@Eng.Sun.COM Sun Microsystems Inc. +1 415-336-2972 Mountain View, CA. < These opinions are mine, Sun Microsystems may or may not agree with me. >
watson@spot.Eng.Sun.COM (Robert Watson) (07/05/90)
In article <943@limbo.Intuitive.Com> taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) writes: >Hey Jordan! I've played around with the Toshiba SPARC laptop, and >it does indeed run straight SunOS. In fact, when I talked to the >engineers from Toshiba about some ideas for custom device drivers >(like a keyboard equivalent for mouse motion for those times you >don't want to hook the mouse up) they gave me a really weird look >and said that they had done *nothing* to SunOS to make it work. >Generally, though, the Toshiba SPARC laptop is an incredible machine, >a real state-of-the-art in laptop technology (though at 17+ pounds >you need a pretty tough lap!) The display, for example, had the >lowest persistance LCD I've ever seen... I too was amazed at this machine... Not having time to hook it up to the net (no free hostid's :-() I made a tape of Openwindows V2 on my SPARCstation 150Mb tape unit, plugged the same tape unit using the same cable into the Toshiba and tar'ed the tape down. Everything worked, first time. -- Robert Watson watson@Eng.Sun.COM Sun Microsystems Inc. +1 415-336-2972 Mountain View, CA. < These opinions are mine, Sun Microsystems may or may not agree with me. >
aland@infmx.UUCP (Colonel Panic) (07/06/90)
In article <1163@s5.Morgan.COM> jordan@Morgan.COM (Jordan Hayes) writes: >I am interested in high-end "laptop" UNIX solutions. I have seen the >Toshiba Sparc, but does it run SunOS? Can you even buy them in this Given that it's a SPARC, what else *could* it run? Has anything else been ported to the SPARC? -- Alan Denney # Informix # aland@informix.com # {pyramid|uunet}!infmx!aland "The driver says, 'One more cup of coffee and I'll be all right...' 'Pop a Bennie, another Bennie'..." - The Bobs, "Bus Plunge"
kailanhw@castor.usc.edu (07/07/90)
In article <4701@infmx.UUCP> aland@infmx.UUCP (alan denney) writes: =In article <1163@s5.Morgan.COM> jordan@Morgan.COM (Jordan Hayes) writes: =>I am interested in high-end "laptop" UNIX solutions. I have seen the =>Toshiba Sparc, but does it run SunOS? Can you even buy them in this = =Given that it's a SPARC, what else *could* it run? Has anything else =been ported to the SPARC? = Are you talking about U?IX or PC? IS this a U?IX world? Are we talking about source codes or binary codes? Since SPARC can only run U?IX, what you expect it can not run and other U?IX machine can run? I have using SPARC server and workstation for a long time and have not met any programs can be compiled and be run at other U?IX machine but can not be compiled and be run on SPARC. Certainly, sometimes you may need to do some change to make it work. = =-- =Alan Denney # Informix # aland@informix.com # {pyramid|uunet}!infmx!aland = = "The driver says, 'One more cup of coffee and I'll be all right...' = 'Pop a Bennie, another Bennie'..." - The Bobs, "Bus Plunge" | Opinion stated above is mine only and put your best judgement on it. | | Snail : kailanhw@usc.edu % flame > /dev/null | | Real world: Kailan H. | | "The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open." --- Gunter Grass |
mark@parc.xerox.com (Mark Weiser) (07/07/90)
>In article <1163@s5.Morgan.COM> jordan@Morgan.COM (Jordan Hayes) writes: >>I am interested in high-end "laptop" UNIX solutions. I have seen the >>Toshiba Sparc, but does it run SunOS? Can you even buy them in this The Toshiba is not a laptop, but a luggable. It requires 110A/C, and weighs 14 pounds (or maybe 18). -mark -- Spoken: Mark Weiser ARPA: weiser@xerox.com Phone: +1-415-494-4406
jordan@Morgan.COM (Jordan Hayes) (07/07/90)
Alan Denney <aland@infmx.UUCP> writes:
Given that it's a SPARC, what else *could* it run?
Has anything else been ported to the SPARC?
Well, I've received more information on this so I thought it was time
to summarize. Yes it runs SunOS 4.0.3. It should be shipping by
December of this year. The price in Japan translates to about $15k,
but there is no word on pricing here.
The Sony laptop I saw was a laptop NeWS 68030 running their version of
4BSD, and it hasn't been seen outside of Sony -- even some Sony
employees that I talked to don't have any knowlege of it. My guess is
that it's newer than the Toshiba, so it could be a while before we see
one.
/jordanbob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) (07/09/90)
In article <1194@s5.Morgan.COM> jordan@Morgan.COM (Jordan Hayes) writes:
The Sony laptop I saw was a laptop NeWS 68030 running their version
of 4BSD...
NeWS is a window system from Sun (or is it SUN or sun?). NEWS is a
workstation from Sony (or is it SONY?). News is a distributed
discussion group system. NEWS runs X and News, but I don't know
whether NEWS runs NeWS.
Someone should copyright the other capitalization permutations before
things get even more confusing. Get all of [Nn][Ee][Xx][Tt] too,
while you're at it. Things are getting silly.