From: bhv@areaplg2.corp.mot.com (Bronis Vidugiris)
Subject: Re: The living Nightmare
Organization: Motorola, CCR&D, CORP, Schaumburg, IL
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 20:58:40 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.085507.19406@fys.ruu.nl> vreeburg@fys.ruu.nl (Jurriaan Vreeburg) writes:
)In <1992Nov07.203245.9837@edsi.plexus.COM> chuck@edsi.plexus.COM (Chuck Tomasi) writes:

)>On the one hand you are asking everyone to transition, thus we bring up
)>8.1 and find that it has some "shortcomings".  Our site may be a bit
)>unique in that we use nearly all Mentor tools (except IC.)  There is no
)>official LMS (Library Management System), the analog tools were on a
)>supplemental release, and we still don't have things like GenRad
)>netlisters.  An incomplete release once again.
)
)>Now we find out that things like LMS will be available in 8.2, however
)>to transition to 8.2 (due out Nov-Dec time frame from what I hear) it is
)>required that the node be running 10.4.
)
)>Thus the catch!  Once you've made the leap to 8.2/10.4 you cannot run
)>7.0 until it is released for 10.4.  I'm sorry, but this is supposed to
)>be a "transition" and not a "quantum leap."  We'll still need to run our
)>7.0 tools until we have successfully installed 8.2, tested the
)>robustness of the tools, put a pilot project through, and given two
)>thumbs up.
)
)>We are a site of approximately 35 nodes.  We cannot afford to cut out
)>one board station, one idea station, etc. and dedicate them to the task
)>of getting 8.2 up and running and then wait for 7.0 to come out before
)>we can use them again on existing designs.

)>As the System Administrator it is my task to make sure that the
)>Engineers can carry out their work as seemlessly as possible.  This
)>latest announcement about 10.4 is going to make my next few months a
)>living nightmare with respect to the Engineers and their work.

IMO the thing to do is to cut *one* node out and run 8.x on it.  This
will probably convince you that you need a total hardware upgrade to
run 8.x really effectively - i.e. run 8.x on 700 series nodes and mostly
forget about 8.x on Domain (maybe it could work for some less demanding
applications - try it for yourself and make up your own mind.)  Hopefully
your salesperson will be reasonably generous in giving you an 'all' code
or whatever for your single 8.0 node.  If not, complain :-).

Naturually this (all new hardware) will be an expensive investment.  So will
chucking Mentor and moving to a competitor such as Cadence.  If you upgrade
the hardware, you at least have something physical to show for it.  I'd
say this is the path of choice as long as you get reasonable attention
and service from Mentor.  Some people at our company who don't like
Mentor have taken this as an opportunity to do business with someone else,
though.

One alternative is to stick with 7.0 as much as possible and take a very
cautious approach to jumping on the 8.8 bandwagon - treat it as a new
product rather than an upgrade.  Of course, 7.0 may or may not be around
for awhile, and doesn't run on the newest platforms.

This is obviously much more than a sysadmin issue - kick it upstairs ASAP.
Of course, you have to convince yourself that this picture is accurate, first
- and be able to convince management that it is accurate and that they won't
be able to just blithely run 8.0 on their old equipment.

all IMO.

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