Date: Sat, 20 Feb 88 12:17:29 EST From: Dwight D. McKay (The Moderator) Reply-To: Suns-at-Home@mckay.UUCP Subject: Suns-at-Home Digest V1 #5 To: Suns-at-Home-List Suns-at-Home Digest Sat, 20 Feb 88 Volume 1 : Issue 5 Today's Topics: /usr/diag/sysdiag on Sun-2's On modems and Sun purchases +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Submissions: suns-at-home \ @ea.ecn.purdue.edu | | Requests: suns-at-home-request > -- or -- | | Archives: suns-at-home-archives / ...ihnp4!pur-ee!mckay!... | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Feb 88 20:57:29 CST From: pur-ee!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!mmeyer (Morris Meyer) Subject: /usr/diag/sysdiag on Sun-2's To: uiucdcs!pur-ee!mckay!sah Are the files in the /usr/diag directory used during boot-time or for periodic maintenance? I ask this because they are taking up 1.2 MB on my Sun with not much disk space. Thanks in advance. --morris meyer Morris A. Meyer USEnet: ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!mmeyer Gould CSD-Urbana ARPAnet: mmeyer@gswd-vms.arpa 1101 E. University BELLnet: (217) 384-8739 Urbana, IL 61801 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Feb 88 21:18:23 PST From: Greg Earle Subject: On modems and Sun purchases To: Suns-at-Home@ea.ecn.purdue.edu I'd like to comment on a couple of things, and get some feedback. (1) I can see having a Telebit TrailBlazer+ for a home Sun modem, even for SLIP, only if you expect that the traffic will almost always be one way, namely with one side providing mostly packet ACKS and not much else. I wouldn't want to be running TELNET (thereby providing the slow, low-quantity link) with someone else running FTP and sucking things off of my machine. I think if one considers the likelihood of often having a two-way connection on the machine, with TCP/IP packets flowing in both directions, then there isn't much choice but to go to full V.32 modems. I'd guess that the overwhelming use for home Suns wouldn't have that requirement, so probably a lot of people could get by with a Telebit-style modem. True? Do the V.32 modems need `conditioned' lines that the local telephone companies are only too willing to charge extra for? (2) I'd be interested in hearing from the people on the list (who actually have a Sun at home) retell the story of how they obtained it. Even given 30% University discounts, unless one explores the used market these things are still definitely Not Cheap. I'd be curious to find out if people are using hard earned savings to pay cash for them (instead of a new car), or if they were acquired via business loan or other creative financing arrangements, etc. Any war stories appreciated. For example, assuming one doesn't want to incur the nightmare of running NFS over the modems, a basic standalone system might be Sun-3/60FC-4-P14 (Packaged system) - Sun-3/60, 20 MHz 68020 20 MHz 68881 - 3 MIPS - 4 Mbytes main memory - 327 Mb SCSI disk, 60 Mb 1/4" tape - 16" Color monitor, + keyboard This currently lists for $20300; at 30% Educational discount we're still talking $14210, quite a hefty sum no matter how you look at it. Now, of course, if you're a consultant and can write it all off as a business expense, then it's a different story. I don't know, personally. I haven't discussed 3rd party disk & tape do-it-yourself configurations, because I don't have my prices for those handy. Even a bare-bones diskless 16" color 3/60 is $7630 (University), not exactly PC prices. Then again, maybe all of you folk have 3/50's with little shoeboxes, roughing it ... (3) Finally, there's the built-in obsolescence factor. The packaged 3/60 system described above was my ideal `Win the Lotto' system up until the Sun-4/110 was announced; I now have this queasy feeling that even a 3/60 will be obsolete sooner than the SPARC models. Also, depending on the packaging you can get a machine with double the memory and twice the CPU horsepower for only 50% more: Sun-4/110FC (Not packaged) - Sun-4/110, 14.28 MHz SPARC (no floating point unit) - 7 MIPS - 8 Mbytes main memory - 327 Mbyte SCSI disk & 60 Mbyte 1/4" tape - 16" color monitor, + keyboard Current list $30600 (vs. $20300 above); the disk & tape is discount Category `B' not `A', but a lot of places get 30% for both `A' and `B' discount. This is $21420 which is $100 over 50% more than the 3/60 system. Let's see, `Do I buy the new BMW 325es or buy a Sun ...' :-) (NB: I'd never buy a BMW) But anyway, this kind of system seems to be better placed to ward off obsolecense than the 3/60-based ... hopefully when the Cypress SPARC chipsets become available then CPU upgrades will be (relatively) fairly cheap and easy to do (plug-in replacement would be nice (-: ), something not possible with the 3/60 ... I'd hold out for a possible Sun-4/60, but there's a running bet around here that the Fujitsu SPARC chipset sucks too much power for a single-CPU board implementation, and it'll have to wait at least until sometime after the Cypress SPARC chips show up ... Of course, last but not least is the eternal connundrum of the prospective Sun-at-Home buyer: `But, wait 6 months and there'll be a smallercheaperfaster& biggerdiskcapacity one to buy' ... yeah, and you'll keep waiting and never buy it. >From a still-waiting Sun-at-Home buyer-to-be, Greg Earle earle@mahendo.JPL.NASA.GOV Indep. Sun consultant earle%mahendo@jpl-elroy.ARPA [aka:] (Gainfully Unemployed) earle%mahendo@elroy.JPL.NASA.GOV Lakeview Terrace, CA ...!cit-vax!elroy!jplgodo!mahendo!earle ------------------------------ End of Suns-at-Home Digest ******************************