jkb@ms.uky.edu (Keith Burton) (11/02/90)
I have a customer who's wanting to use a '386 based system to run a xenix project. The project will involve 20 terminals, but is very light duty. The terminals will be manned by people filling in screens in response to questions they will ask drop-in clients. Only around 6-8 of the terminals will actually be active at any time, and the workload should be next to nothing (ask a question, wait while the client figures out what to say, fill in the field, ask the next question...). The customer is dead-set on staying with a 386 or 486, as they had a TERRIBLE experience with a mini system years back and won't even consider them anymore. After that, they made a corporate committment to stick with PC hardware. I've worked with some xenix systems before, but have never seen a PC-based system with 20 terminals on it. I'd appreciate knowing first, if it can be done and second, if so, what i/o cards are best for such an application. All this data will be updating several databases. I've got a free hand here, as long as the package is SQL-compatable. I'd also welcome recommendations in that area. Thanks! Keith Burton
benah@adspp.uucp (Ben A. Hunsberger) (11/02/90)
In article <16304@s.ms.uky.edu> jkb@ms.uky.edu (Keith Burton) writes: >I have a customer who's wanting to use a '386 based system to run a xenix >project. The project will involve 20 terminals, but is very light duty. > stuff deleted > >I've worked with some xenix systems before, but have never seen a PC-based >system with 20 terminals on it. I'd appreciate knowing first, if it can be >done and second, if so, what i/o cards are best for such an application. > We're running up to 17 physical terminals in our software development shop, all running MultiView(a product which allows up to 6 apps on a dumb terminal). Our programers tend to be heavy users in about 3-4 screen with several compiles going at once. The system keeps up pretty good. We still only have a 25 mhz model also! -- Benjamin A. Hunsberger | uunet!rutgers!iuvax!ndmath!nstar!adspp!benah MicroAge/Abacus | uunet!sco!romed!adspp!benah 2707 Middlebury St. | benah@adspp.UUCP Elkhart, IN 46516 | 219-295-4290 (voice) / 219-522-2964 (fax)
rick@comspec.uucp (Rick McCalla) (11/06/90)
In <16304@s.ms.uky.edu> jkb@ms.uky.edu (Keith Burton) writes: >I have a customer who's wanting to use a '386 based system to run a xenix >project. The project will involve 20 terminals, but is very light duty. >The terminals will be manned by people filling in screens in response to >questions they will ask drop-in clients. Only around 6-8 of the terminals >will actually be active at any time, and the workload should be next to >nothing (ask a question, wait while the client figures out what to say, >fill in the field, ask the next question...). >I'd appreciate knowing first, if it can be >done and second, if so, what i/o cards are best for such an application. WE have two systems in house both 386-25 and running SCO Xenix 2.3.2. On one of them we are running 16 terminals using a Computone AT16 with only 3-4 ports active at once. On the other we are running 48 ports (mostly terminals) with 20 or so busy at any time doing an application similiar to what you describe. For this machine we used to use two Computone AT16 but are presently using 2- 24 port Equinox boards. The Computone boards provide full modem control but the Equinox are quite a bit more efficient. >All this data will be updating several databases. I've got a free hand here, >as long as the package is SQL-compatable. I'd also welcome recommendations >in that area. The reason we have been able to run up to 30 users at once with only a 386-25 and 8 Mb of memory is the database we are using - Sculptor. A very fast 4GL with SQL that is extremely efficient on memory. Contact MPD International in Cincinnati - Todd Goodwin - for further information. Even with a full 30 users on the system response time is almost instantaneous. -- Comspec Communications Inc. | Rick McCalla ----- rick@comspec.UUCP Toronto, Ontario Canada |---------------------------------- Voice : (416) 785 - 3553 | Path: uunet!mnetor!becker!comspec!rick Fax : (416) 785 - 3668 |