HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
Subject: Re: VCR as a backup medium?
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 04:56:38 GMT

gps19@herald.usask.ca (Gregory P. Siemens) writes:
>Is it possible to use a VCR as a backup device.  What hardware and 
>software would be needed?  I,m trying to come up with a cheap way of
>storing large amounts of data.  If the hardware does not exist would it
>be difficult to construct(ie. what would be required).  I would
>appreciate any(!!) enlightenment on this subject(reasons it will or 
>won't work, etc.).

      It's been done, but I haven't seen an adapter for doing it since
about 1987.  Heavy redundancy in the data is necessary (one system
recorded everything six times) because of the high noise level and
dropout problems with VCRs.  VCRs are not well suited to stop-start
operation, so buffering is a problem.  

      8mm drives are often warmed-over camcorder decks, and 8mm backup
is a mature technology, although the drives still cost too much.
At least the tape is cheap.  But VHS backup seems a dead technology.

					John Nagle
From: comjohn@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Mr. John T Jensen)
Newsgroups: comp.arch.storage
Subject: Microcomputer Memories 112 drive? - Help!
Date: 25 Jan 93 04:01:49 GMT
Organization: University of Auckland, New Zealand.

I have a 3.5" hard disc, manufactured by Microcomputer Memories.  The body
of the drive has a model number MM112 on it.  It is in a 5.25" frame which
has model numbers MM212/312 with the 212 circled.  Does anyone know how many
heads/tracks it has?  PreComp?  Landing cyl?  Appreciate help.

jj

John Thayer Jensen                      64 9 373 7599 ext. 7543
Commerce Computer Services              64 9 373 7437 (FAX)
Auckland University                     jt.jensen@auckland.ac.nz
Private Bag 92019
AUCKLAND
New Zealand
Newsgroups: comp.arch.storage,comp.periphs.scsi
From: pburry@manitou.cse.dnd.ca (Paul Burry)
Subject: RAID-7
Organization: Canadian System Security Centre
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 23:34:31 GMT

Does anyone have any experiences with the RAID-7 products
available from Storage Computer?  They sound almost too
good to be true.

I would appreciate hearing any and all experiences and will summarize
them if requested.


--
From: a0061@rrz.uni-koeln.de (Claus Kalle)
Newsgroups: comp.arch.storage
Subject: UniTree on non-(Supers/Minisupers) w/ AFS
Date: 28 Jan 1993 14:45:59 +0100
Organization: Regional Computing Center, University of Cologne
NNTP-Posting-Host: rs1.rrz.uni-koeln.de
Keywords: UniTree AFS

While investigating about archiving software systems (like UniTree) together 
with file distribution systems (like NFS and AFS) I come across the
information that UniTree (1.7) will only create ftp and nfs server functions.

Since our plan was to have some standard archiving filestore and to export files
with AFS (resp. OSF/DCE DFS) I want to ask the more experienced people:

- Who is running already such an environment ?
- Who is using UniTree on a non-Cray and non-Convex machine (e.g. large
  server system(s)) ?
- Is UniTree really running as user-level code to make a "special" 
  filesystem accessable only through special NFS or FTP servers ? I thought
  that the filesystem switch would be the point where you could hook up
  "special" filesystem code, so I expected UniTree to be a special filesystem
  code running in kernel-mode....

Thanks in advance to the enlighted.... 

Claus Kalle, University of Cologne              i   i
Regional Computing Center                       M   M  The
System Software and Networking Dept.            M   M    Cologne
E-Mail: Kalle@rrz.Uni-Koeln.DE                 /I\ /I\     Cathedral
Phone: +49 221 478 5580                        MIIIIIM
Fax:   +49 221 478 5590                        MiMiMiM
Snail-Mail: Robert-Koch-Str. 10, 5000 Koeln 41 MIMiMiM  Germany

Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.lsi,comp.lsi.cad,sci.electronics
From: hossain@sol.cs.wmich.edu (Moazzem)
Subject: Re: Good and Recent VLSI books
Organization: Western Michigan Univ. Comp. Sci. Dept.
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 20:41:53 GMT

In article <1993Jan27.232024.2494@hplabsz.hpl.hp.com> kjchang@hplabsz.hpl.hp.com (K. J. Chang) writes:
>Looking for good and up-to-date books on VLSI Designs.
>
>I have the following four books on VLSI designs:
>1. Mead and Conway (1980)
>2. Weste and Dobberpuhl (1985)
>3. Glasser and Eshraghian (1985)
>4. Pucknell and Eshraghian (1988) 2nd edition
>
>I do not think the material in them are up-to-date,
>especially BiCMOS. Furthermore, I do not think any
>of the first three have 2nd edition. Am I right?
>
>Thanks for your attention,
>
>-- 
>K J Chang, Hewlett-Packard ICBD R & D,                      (())_-_(())
>Palo Alto, CA 94304                                          | (* *) | 
>Internet: kjchang@hpl.hp.com           a UCLA Bruin  -->    {  \_@_/  }
>voice mail: (415)857-4604                                     `-----'  

Following is the most recent (January 1993) book on VLSI design automation.

	Title:     Algorithms for VLSI Physical Design Automation
	Author:    Naveed Sherwani
	Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
	ISBN:      0-7923-9294-9

The above mentioned book is the most comprehensive book on VLSI design automation (to
the best of my knowledge).

--- Moazzem

Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: brennan@tango.cchs.su.oz.au (Luke Brennan)
Subject: Re: ANDF bogosity
Organization: Cumberland College of Health Sciences
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 09:36:42 GMT

In article <1993Jan25.161034.14188@vbohub.vbo.dec.com>, kaiser@mammal.vbo.dec.com (Peter Kaiser) writes:
> 
> In article <pnevmati.727648034@cs.wisc.edu>, pnevmati@milhouse.cs.wisc.edu
> (Dionisios N. Pnevmatikatos) writes:
> 
>> OK, but I can (have actually) get DES from Australia (or anywhere in
>> Europe), and then I can give/sell it whereever I want.
> 
> No you can't.  It's perfectly legal for you to import it, so far as I know,
> but you are absolutely NOT free to re-export it anywhere outside the USA,
> nor to give it, in any way, to anyone inside the USA who isn't either a US
> citizen or the holder of a green card.  This may seem silly to you -- it
> does to me -- but it is the law.
> 
>> What keeps all these companies from doing exactly that?
> 
> Because it's illegal.  Clear on that?

	I can get DES sources from anywhere on the planet, yet I can't
	re-export them once they land in USA??
	What about all the PUBLISHED versions that have come from the
	USA itself?
	oooh..  right.. NOW it's clear..  U.S.A.  ...  right.. uh huh..

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
+ Luke Brennan                             e-mail:   L.Brennan@cchs.su.EDU.AU +
+ EDP Unit, S209                       L.Brennan%cchs.su.edu.au@cunyvm.BITNET +
+ Cumberland College of Health Sciences,                              ,-_|\   +
+ The University of Sydney                  voice: +61 2 646 6402    /     \  +
+ East Street, Lidcombe, NSW 2141             fax: +61 2 646 4853    \_,-._*  +
+ AUSTRALIA                                                               v   +
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: kaiser@mammal.vbo.dec.com (Peter Kaiser)
Subject: Re: ANDF bogosity
Reply-To: kaiser@uniriv.vbo.dec.com
Organization: DEC Technology Integration Group
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 16:10:34 GMT


In article <pnevmati.727648034@cs.wisc.edu>, pnevmati@milhouse.cs.wisc.edu
(Dionisios N. Pnevmatikatos) writes:

> OK, but I can (have actually) get DES from Australia (or anywhere in
> Europe), and then I can give/sell it whereever I want.

No you can't.  It's perfectly legal for you to import it, so far as I know,
but you are absolutely NOT free to re-export it anywhere outside the USA,
nor to give it, in any way, to anyone inside the USA who isn't either a US
citizen or the holder of a green card.  This may seem silly to you -- it
does to me -- but it is the law.

> What keeps all these companies from doing exactly that?

Because it's illegal.  Clear on that?

___Pete

kaiser@uniriv.vbo.dec.com
+33 92.95.62.97, FAX +33 92.95.52.00
From: gints@prophet.esd.sgi.com (Gints Klimanis)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: HOw many PC's make an Amdahl mainframe
Date: 26 Jan 93 22:06:24 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: prophet.esd.sgi.com

Michael Jones of SGI was generous enough to take the time.  He also
comments that the mainframe as a whole is a more usable configuration
than the sum of the PC's.

Michael Jones:

I bet we could estimate it closely this way: Amdahl's powerful
mainframe must use advanced technology parts in order to be
so powerful. Parts of 2x the performance usually cost > 2x the
price. Harwdare system vendors get 4x to 6x parts cost as sale
price, while PC parts at Frye's are close to wholesale (2x). 

Ergo:

   Amdahl mainframe at $a. (say $3M)
   Amdahl cost at a/4 (at the most)
   this figure (a/4) represents "potential energy" of a sort.

   Typical system at Frye's is $p (say $2000).
   Frye's price is 2x cost, say, so the question is:
      How many cheap PC's for 2*(a/4), == a/(2p).

   Answer: 3,000,000/(2*2,000) = 750 pc's == 1 Amdahl

How reasonable is this, I wonder?

       750*30 MIPS = 22.5 BIPS
         750*200MB = 150 GBytes of DIsk
         750*1Mb/s = 750 MBytes/sec Disk transfer
 750 floppy drives = 1.08 GBytes removable storage ;-)
       750*4Mb RAM = 3 Gbytes of RAM
   750*Lotus 1-2-3 = 750 concurrent users
      750*1 RS-232 = 750 network attachments

Sounds ok. Now how big would the room capable of housing
750 pc's need to be? Well, if they were stacked in a cube
and each was 24"x24"x8", we have 3x^3 = 750, x^3 = 250, 
and x = 6.3. Rounding to x = 7, we have a stack that's
7x7x(3x7) for a size of 7*24 = 14 x 14 x 14 feet. Well,
that's too big, lets stack them half as high. Now the
room is 2^(1/2) bigger on each side, so it must be 19.7
feet on a side. Rounding, we get:

  A room 20' x 20' stacked solid with PC's 7' high.

Well, we need some room to get to the machines, so we can
change the 750 floppies during backups. Let's make the 
room 3x the length, so we have long rows of stacked PC's
with 4' aisles. Now the room is:

 20' wide, 60' long, and 7' high.

The question is, are there any rooms this large in the
world? 
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: lasse@idt.unit.no (Lasse Natvig)
Subject: Manchester Dataflow Computer
Organization: University of Trondheim, Norway
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 15:02:34 GMT


Gurd, Kirkham and Watson wrote an instructive paper on the Manchester
Prototype Dataflow Computer in CACM, january 1985.

I'm using the paper in a course on computer architecture, and wonder
"what happened since then"?

I would appreciate all kinds of hints and pointers to info about this.

If there is interest for it, I will post a summary.

Thanks in advance

Lasse Natvig
The Norwegian Institute of Technology, 
The University of Trondheim,
NORWAY
From: awolfe@moo.Princeton.EDU (Andrew Wolfe)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Sales figures on workstation vendors?
Date: 25 Jan 93 17:53:30 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@nimaster

In article <1993Jan24.195151.3645@wam.umd.edu>, rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari) writes:
|> 
|> 	Can anyone give me (or tell me where I might find) the figures
|> 	on workstations sold for Sun, HP, IBM, NeXT, Dec and Data General?
|> 
|> 	I'm not sure where else to check.  There is a numbers dispute in
|> 	one of the (of course) advocacy groups.
|> 
|> 

The 1/11/93 issue of EE times has 1992 sales for the top-5  (p.4)


Excerp likely to be legal under fair-use
------------------------------------------

		1992 market share ($ I believe)
Sun			31.6%
HP			19.8%
IBM			18.4%
DEC			 9.1%
SGI			 7.1%


-- 
--------------------------------------
Andrew Wolfe
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
Princeton University
From: kers@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Chris Dollin)
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 09:52:46 GMT
Subject: Re: HOw many PC's make an Amdahl mainframe
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Newsgroups: comp.arch

In article ... gints@prophet.esd.sgi.com (Gints Klimanis) writes:

   Well, we need some room to get to the machines, so we can
   change the 750 floppies during backups. Let's make the 
   room 3x the length, so we have long rows of stacked PC's
   with 4' aisles. Now the room is:

    20' wide, 60' long, and 7' high.

   The question is, are there any rooms this large in the
   world? 

The HP open-plan office I am in at the moment is about 14' high and 
about 90' x 180' (this is just the Labs half), assuming that I can manage 
3' a stride and that my estimation by eye that the building is twice as 
long as wide is in bounds. A safety-factor of 27 seems acceptable.

Just strip out the cubicle walls. We've even got power and LAN laid on under
the floor-tiles ...
--

Regards | "Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be
Kers.   | a violent psychopath who knows where you live." - John F. Woods
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: HOw many PC's make an Amdahl mainframe
Organization: I.E.C.C.
Date: 27 Jan 93 16:50:43 EST (Wed)
From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine)

>[People still use mainframes for very large databases; PCs and file or
database servers will squeeze that out]

Maybe and maybe not.  I've seen plausible claims that when you're handing
data bases, 10 systems of capacity N are no substitute for one system of
capacity 10N, mostly because the slower systems hold each lock 10 times as
long so you get considerably more lock contention.

Is there any reason to think this isn't true?  I realize that for slowly
changing data, e.g. schedules and fares in an airline system, you can
replicate and partition the data, but they do that on mainframes, too.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl
Newsgroups: comp.arch
From: pradeep@watson.ibm.com (Pradeep Dubey)
Subject: Machines with cond. assignment instruction?
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 16:36:07 GMT
Reply-To: pradeep@watson.ibm.com
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: T. J. Watson Research Center

Hello Everyone,
Are there announced machines (specially micros) with
some conditional assignment instruction.  I mean
instruction such as the following:

MovCond R1, R2, R3 /* if (c1) R1 <- R2 else R1 <- R3 */

where, c1 refers to some result of some previous compare.

Any pointers to such machines or any quantitative evaluation
of usefulness of this instruction in the specific context
of some machine would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Pradeep
From: sblagdon@axion.bt.co.uk (Sean Blagdon)
Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus
Subject: RE: VME format on PC's
Date: 28 Jan 93 11:04:12 GMT
Reply-To: sblagdon@axion.bt.co.uk (Sean Blagdon)
Organization: British Telecom Research Labs


All,

  Sorry, a bit of a misunderstanding on my part in my last posting. What we actually need is something to write MTOS format disks, on a PC. We are running MTOS (Multi Tasking Operating System) on a VME 'crate'. MTOS is a OS written by a company called 'Industrial Programming Inc' address Jericho, New York.

Any help apreciated.

Thanks
  Shaun
Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus
From: jcooley@world.std.com (John Cooley)
Subject: Joining ESNUG
Organization: The E-mail Synopsys Users Group (ESNUG)
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 05:52:50 GMT


  If you're using the Synopsys Design Compiler and/or their ATPG product, you 
  might be interested in joining the E-Mail Synopsys Users Group (ESNUG).

  What we are is a group of hardware designers from all over the world who
  wish to trade experiences, bug reports and the techniques that we've
  found that work best in getting a design from a behavioral description
  to a final fully tested product.  This is a grassroots forum independent
  of Synopsys, Inc.

  A Sample of What We Discuss:

	- Known Synopsys Compiler Bugs    - Implementing Boundry Scan

	- Mentor related issues    - EDIF related issues

	- Hierarchical Compliations   - design_analyzer   - JTAG

	- How Various ASIC Vendors Model Their Macros.   - Clock Constraints

	- Using ATPG Tools   - The Best Way To Write State Machines in Verilog

	- Using VHDL   - System Simulation vs. Synopsys Friendly Code

	- Clever Workarounds to Known Pitfalls   - Testing Strategies

  In order to insure an open discussion, but yet keep our respective managers
  happy in having our company's projects remain SECRET, submissions to be 
  posted to the ESNUG mailing list can be stripped of identifying engineers 
  and company names if so requested.

  In addition, to further secure privacy and to avoid e-mail headers that
  are hundreds of names long, each mailing is a batch of singlely addressed 
  e-mail letters.

  If you want to join ESNUG, please send me e-mail to "jcooley@world.std.com"
  saying you wish to join and why.  (Please don't send a copy of this letter
  back to me, I know what you're refering to when you're writing.)

					- John Cooley
					  ESNUG Moderator

 ===========================================================================
 Trapped trying to figure out a Synopsys bug?  Want to hear how others dealt
 with it ?  Join the E-Mail Synopsys Users Group!  To join, E-mail me today! 
 ===========================================================================
      !!!     "It's not a BUG,    | Preferred Address: jcooley@world.std.com
     /o o\  /  it's a FEATURE!"   |    Backup Address: jcooley@miracle.com
    (  >  )                       |              (508) 429-4357
     \ - /       |   Snail Mail: P.O. Box 6222, Holliston, MA 01746-6222
     _] [_       |     "This here ain't no one's opinion 'cept my own."
From: sblagdon@axion.bt.co.uk (Sean Blagdon)
Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus
Subject: VME format on a PC
Date: 27 Jan 93 16:10:39 GMT
Reply-To: sblagdon@axion.bt.co.uk (Sean Blagdon)
Organization: British Telecom Research Labs


I'm a first timer on this news group, so go easy on me!

Does anybody know of a product that will allow me to write VME format disks, on a standard P.C.? Any help will be gratefully recieved.

Thanks
  Shaun.

All my views are mine and no one else's.
From: moliver@pyramid.com (Mike Oliver)
Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus
Subject: Re: VMEbus Specification
Date: 21 Jan 93 23:20:43 GMT
Organization: Pyramid Technology

In article <185017@pyramid.pyramid.com> moliver@pyramid.com (Mike Oliver) writes:
	VITA
>	10229 North Scottsdale
>	Suite E
              ^
Aaargh.  The address in the Spec says Suite E, but I just found a
recent mailing label here that says Suite B.  I called to check and
it's definitely B, as in Bozo.  They've moved since the Spec was
printed.

>	Scottsdale
>	AZ 85253
>
>	Phone (602) 951 8866

> ... "VMEbus Specification" was $29.95 ...
> ... "VMEbus Handbook" for $49.95.

These prices are correct.

Cheers again, Mike.

moliver@pyramid.com
{allegra,decwrl,hplabs,munnari,sun,utai,uunet}!pyramid!moliver
From: gt@prosun.first.gmd.de (Gerd Truschinski)
Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus
Subject: Re: VME format on a PC
Date: 27 Jan 93 18:56:30 GMT
Organization: GMD Berlin (FIRST)

In article <1993Jan27.161039@axion.bt.co.uk>, sblagdon@axion.bt.co.uk (Sean Blagdon) writes:
|> 
|> I'm a first timer on this news group, so go easy on me!
|> 
|> Does anybody know of a product that will allow me to write VME format disks, on a standard P.C.? Any help will be gratefully recieved.
|> 
|> Thanks
|>   Shaun.
|> 
|> All my views are mine and no one else's.

Hi Shaun,
pleace tell me what 'VME format disks' are. And what kind of OS do you use on 
your PC.

/gT/

--
Gerd Truschinski         | INTERNET:    gt@first.gmd.de
c/o GMD-First  Berlin    | 
O-1199 Berlin-Adlershof  | TEL:         +49 30 6704 2662
Rudower Chausee 5 (13.7) | FAX:         +49 30 6704 5088
Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus
From: neilf@delfin.com (Neil Frank)
Subject: VME/VSB Dual Port SRAM Cards...
Organization: Delfin Systems
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 00:06:08 GMT

I am wondering if anybody knows about a VME/VSB Dual Port Ram card which 
can hold a sustained rate of 5Megawords (32bits) into the VSB side and
a similar rate leaving on VME side?  If anybody knows about some companies
which have these boards on the shelf could you please either post a list or
email it to me directly...


Thanks in advance,
-nlf-
-- 
Neil Frank		Delfin Systems		408-748-1200
neilf@delfin.com	Santa Clara, CA.
--              Wisdom is Gained Through Experience,            -- 
--        Experience is Gained Through Error.... "Unknown"      -- 
Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus
From: michael@chg.mcd.mot.com (Michael Bodine)
Subject: Re: VME format on PC's
Organization: Motorola Computer Group, Schaumburg, IL
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 19:29:19 GMT

sblagdon@axion.bt.co.uk (Sean Blagdon) writes:
>  Sorry, a bit of a misunderstanding on my part in my last posting. 
>  What we actually need is something to write MTOS format disks, on a 
>  PC. We are running MTOS (Multi Tasking Operating System) on a VME 
>  'crate'. MTOS is a OS written by a company called 'Industrial 
>  Programming Inc' address Jericho, New York.
Most of the real-time vendors have some facility which will allow you to
read a PC diskette from their operating system.  You should contact IPI
and ask them how they support this operation!  
-- 
[ Michael Bodine; michael@chg.mcd.mot.com; Voice: (708) 576-7840; FAX: x8875  ]
[ Motorola Computer Group - IL38;1100 Woodfield;Suite 334;Schaumburg, Il 60173]
Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus
From: yooho@ursula.ic.cmc.ca (Yoo Ho Cho)
Subject: VXI power supplies
Summary: Need an idea on what power supplies I can hang off VXI
Organization: Canadian Microelectronics Corporation
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 21:51:51 GMT

Hello

I have some questions about VXI.

1. Power supplies. Does anyone actually tap off the bus power in the chassis
   to drive the DUT ? 

2. What about programmable VXI supply modules and do they get power via 
   the chassis or a separate line cord ?

I'll summarize in a couple of weeks.

Yoo Ho Cho
Canadian Microelectronics Corporation
From: chaos@gojira.berkeley.edu (Jim Crutchfield)
Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus
Subject: 3.5" SCSI disks in 6U VME cage
Date: 28 Jan 1993 21:31:09 GMT
Organization: Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
Reply-To: chaos@gojira.berkeley.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: gidrah.berkeley.edu

	I am looking for a frame that holds a 3.5" SCSI disk, slides
into a 6U VME card cage, and provides disk power from the bus.

	Does such a thing exist? If so, who sells it?

	Many thanks,

		Jim

	James P. Crutchfield
	Physics Department
	University of California
	Berkeley, California 94720

	chaos@gojira.berkeley.edu
	Office: 510-642-1287
	FAX:    510-643-8497

Newsgroups: comp.arch.bus.vmebus