bauer@loligo.cc.fsu.edu (Jeff Bauer) (12/02/89)
FSU is installing a 4 CPU Cray Y-MP in early spring, with UNICOS. We want to purchase a suitable front end to connect to an FEI-3 that is part of the Cray configuration. I would like to get any opinions from Cray-xperts out there as to just what sort of front end we should get. Naturally, we expect this front end to be an IP gateway into the Cray, along with a VAX 8700 running the VMSLINK package. We don't want the FE connected to the FEI-3 to be a bottleneck, or at least we want it to be a wide-necked bottle. The crowd favorite seems to be a Sun; preferably a Sun-4 server with at least 2 unused VMEbus slots for the Cray boards, with at least 16MB of memory, and the special Sun-provided device driver. Anybody have have any opinions on what might be a better cost performer, given the IP gateway software requirements and 10 Mbit <---> 6 Mbyte buffering? What about SunOS version and device driver mismatches? What's the "gotcha's" with using any of the FEI-3-pluggable machines besides Suns? Please e-mail and I'll gladly post a summary, if appropriate. Thanks! Jeff Bauer bauer@loligo.cc.fsu.edu Florida State University (904) 644-2591 ext. 113
mike@BRL.MIL (Mike Muuss) (12/06/89)
You should also consider one of the new NSC "N" series adaptors and the NSC IP gateway. We are testing one now. There is at least one configuration where the NSC IP gateway can attach directly to the Cray channels that would otherwise have gone to an NSC A130. The NSC IP gateway can directly drive 4 ethernets. More info in a few weeks. If you need data faster than that, write directly to <Reschly@BRL.MIL>; Bob is running the actual tests. Best, -Mike