🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1871@sousa.ltn.dec.com> gibian@ljohub.enet.dec.com writes:
>
>Client/Server has been around for quite a while, but most is limited to
>file level distribution of computing environment.  What is slow to surface
>is sharing of other computing resources within the network environment.
>There are limited implementations of things like print servers and
>information servers (just specialized file servers).  Even slower to
>appear are common usage of compute related servers.

Huh?  Obviously I've either been blazing the trail to the future for
the past several years or the above is pretty silly.  File Servers
have been around for a long time, as have print servers (ala Novell
and others), and so-called "information servers" (I assume you mean
database servers) are also commonplace - just because Oracle and
Sybase have been duking it out for top honors on Unix, IBM, and DEC
platforms and noone else seems to have come up with an alternative
that is extremely palatable doesn't give credibility to your
statement.  As for client front-ends to database servers, there are so
many that I lost count at 50 and as OCE starts to become more and more
accepted as the standard for enterprise computing, the number of tools
will explode.
If you are refering to database servers when you refer to "information
servers" then you are incorrect in stating that they are specialized
file servers.  In fact, they are not file servers at all, and machines
that are well suited to act as file servers are typically not well
suited to act as database servers by the nature of the beast.
It is true that "compute related servers" have been slow to appear.
However, the complexity of this task and the small need have dictated
that this option will not be widely available for some time.  Consider
the problems:  1) A network must be able to handle the extra
traffic.  2) The servers must use complex parallel-computing
algorithms to complete tasks, which means that the server must be
coded differently.  3)  Often additional memory, disk drives, or
servers will solve the problem at relatively small expense.  4)
Computing power growing quickly and at the same time becoming less
expensive even more quickly.
The fact that there are few commercially available parallel-processing
machines and that all are prohibitively expensive indicate that the
problems with such architectures are difficult when the processors are
in the same machine - much less in different machines sitting perhaps
several hundred feet to several thousand miles away from each other.

Mikey.
Mac Admin "Emeritus"-WSOM CSG - CWRU / 	Engineer-NewMedia Corp. Cleveland, OH
--
Mikey.
Mac Admin "Emeritus"-WSOM CSG - CWRU / 	Engineer-NewMedia Corp. Cleveland, OH
"I looked up the word 'Basketball Player' in the dictionary and you know what
it said?  NOT YOU." - Sydney, White Men Can't Jump