From: sphere@netcom.com (Sam Goldberger)
Subject: Re: Fed Up!
Keywords: grumpy
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 07:07:27 GMT

philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough) writes:
> 
>I bought a Cube for precisely the same reasons you did. And for precisely
>those reasons, it would take an act of God to get me to buy another NeXT
>system.

Cube owners: don't despair quite yet. Some folks know of our efforts
here at Spherical to keep the Cube alive and viable. To date, these
have included:

	1) The EPB (Enhanced Processing Board) that allows you to
	use your optical drive even with the Turbo upgrade (I know,
	you say, what Turbo upgrade--send email for info on this),
	and also gives you a second processor and ports to work with.

	2) Maintaining an inventory of cheap, new optical drives

	3) Researching (and ultimately rejecting) the possibility
	of "SCSI-fying" the OD. Briefly, this doesn't make sense
	because:

		a. Canon won't sell the converter boards to
		   anyone.

		b) The low-level disk format used by NeXT is
		   not compatible with the SCSI-fied drive,
		   and requires that all data be transferred
		   to newly-formatted double-sided optical
		   disks.

		c) A special driver would be required to allow
		   disks to be properly mounted and ejected.

We're now at work on a new project that we believe will make
the Cube the most desireable NeXT platform for some time to
come. This consists of a process arbitration program that
will automatically assign applications and processes to different
boards in a multi-boarded Cube. We've found that you can safely
mount up to four boards in a Cube, and connect them via Ethernet;
this is not as bad as it sounds, as the transfer speed of the
E-net is quite respectable. With the arbitration program, you
will not only be able to run applications like Mathematica and
Renderman that are compiled to run on multiple CPU's, but can
maintain speed and functionality with multiple tasks and
applications, no matter what they are. For those familiar
with it, this is like an automated version of Zilla.

We're also in discussion with a company that makes a C-Linda
like product that simulates a shared memory environment over
the net (or within a multi-boarded Cube, of course). This 
allows you to devote cycles from as many processors as are
available to the net to a single application. However, that
app must be specially compiled to take advantage of the program.
Note that the arbitration and shared memory simulation can
work together.

The upshot is that you needn't wait for the rumored Risc-based
workstation, nor for the P5 chip, to get more horsepower,
whether for a server or for a single-user workstation.Instead,
keep your Cube, consider the EPB, and await the arbitrator.
At the moment it is vapor-ware, but not for long.

Now, a question--would you pay, let's say, $2500 to upgrade
your Cube to the level of a Turbo Color Station? Please
do send email, as this is not as goofy as it may sound.

Sorry for the long (and admitedly self-serving) post, but
I love that black Cube and don't want to see it die, nor
its faithful owners become depressed. Semper fidelis!
Semper opticalus! Cubus aeternis!

---------------------------------------------------------
Samuel M. Goldberger	sphere@netcom.Com--NeXT Mail OK
Spherical Solutions, 	47 Myrtle Avenue, Mill Valley, CA  94941
415.383.7512--voice     415.381.9556--fax
 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.misc