🚀 go-pugleaf

Continuing the discussion with Stephen Halpin (Squonk@UMass) about
the AT&T UNIX PC...  I have tried to give some context to my replies.

For the scenario described (~30MB of database) one would indeed want
a tape backup unit. Forgive my ignorance, is $2K a lot for such an
item?

Ethernet interface: I hear that this is in beta. Or close to it. No
dates yet. Your figures (5-user system = 2 expansion slots taken up)
are correct, unless you count 2 users between 1 screen and 2 phone
lines. No? I didn't think so.

I will happily 'not comment' on an expansion box. Actually I have no
idea about any manufacturing plans for such an item.

>Is the cheaper non-AT&T 40M drive in the 7300 that AT&T is willing
>to sell me certified and will it be covered by the maintenance
>contract?  The fact that you need a new motherboard is news to me.
>Knowing that 256k parts would be coming out (even BYTE suggested
>AT&T would just pop in the 256k parts) it seems rather short sighted
>not to include that in the design.

I was wrong - you do not get a new motherboard. The drive is indeed
certified (as far as I am aware AT&T does not make any disk drives).
I cannot disagree about the many examples of 'short-sightedness' in
the design.

>The demonstration system I worked with was a 7300 with 1M ram, 20M
>disk, and an VT100.  When I was on the VT100 I wasnt able to use the
>telephone functions to dial out. I also found entering <esc>1 for
>function key one to be a minor annoyance.  If you want to take
>advantage of the graphics and mouse capablities you will need
>something a little more advanced than a VT100..

I have heard of a 'dumb terminal' which looks and feels like a unix
pc screen/keyboard but which works transparently. I can't remember
whether this is real or not, though. (No, honestly, I really can't!)

Re the 6300+ versus the unix pc: Bruce Burger put it very well when
he said that the difference between them was that the unix pc was a
unix engine that happened to be able to run MSDOS, and the 6300+ was
an MSDOS engine which happened to be able to run unix. Having used
both fairly extensively I would agree.

>I still say that for a reduced price it could have sold very well as
>a micro..

By 'micro' *I* mean something like an Apple 2 or some other home and
games-oriented system. The daughter of a friend of mine (~7 years
old) was showing a unix pc off to her friends. When asked 'Where's
the colours, where's the game board' she replied "Oh, this isn't one
of *those* computers, this is one that a bunch of men use at work!".
We did remind her not to be sexist... If by 'micro' you mean
(effectively) an IBM PC then I would reply that *nothing* competes
with an IBM PC. Putting a machine up against an IBM offering
generally results in getting stomped by Big Blue.

>~~~~~~~~~~  <<Flame on>>
Whooo! asbestos time.
>Its my less than humble opinion that its a rediculous waste running
>a multiuser micro.
I absolutely agree.

>Silicon is too cheap now to worry about running a CPU 100% of the
>time.  I can get 68000L8s qty1 for under $10.  I can get 1M of 150ns
>RAM for under $100 (these out of BYTE).  The Unix PCs most
>significant resources (graphics and phone interface) arent REALLY
>sharable.  Why buy a system that shortchanges 4 out of 5 users when
>the technology is there to give them a full 'workstation' of their
>own..

I tend to agree, but am less confident of AT&T's, or any other
non-garage operation's, ability to provide such a 'workstation' at
the same price. Remember, board cost runs about 4-5 times parts cost,
and system cost is 3-4 times board costs. My strictly personal
opinion is that as a System V UNIX engine the unix pc is a bit
expensive, a bit late, and very short of peripherals. Of course, for
the VAR/ISV market that the machine is at least partially aimed at
nobody really cares that the 2-n'th users don't have all the goodies
because it is being sold as a single-user station with electric mail
capabilities. For the office automation market exactly the opposite
is the case. Trying to reconcile these two markets does not sound
easy to me.

-- 
Jonathan Clark
[NAC,attmail]!mtune!jhc

My walk has become rather more silly lately.