6300+ question

[Tom Kiermaier]

Simul-Task and UNIX are one in the same. Simul_Task is AT&T's "new" name
for UNIX on the 6300+. It was done to "hide" UNIX from the MS-DOS users
the machine is primarily marketted to. Since AT&T is not selling UNIX
per se you don't get the User Reference Manual with the package. Except
for vi, BNU(uucp), lp, and a few other commands you don't get command
manual pages. So, unless you are already familiar with the 100's of
commands you'll have to shell out some more bucks for the User Reference
Manual. Also, to run UNIX you'll need at least one megabyte RAM. (preferably
1.5 according to the doc.) The source code generation system (i.e., the
C compiler, yacc, lex, sccs, etc) are sold separately. The compiler itself
is good (i'm currently using it to write a database manager), however
lint doesn't work (core dumps) and sdb occasionally causes the machine
to crash with a protection violation when single stepping.

Another little quirk is that the swapper uses up an VERY large percentage
of the CPU time. After having my machine on for an hour (and not even
logged in) the swapper shows around 55 minutes of CPU time. This definitely
inhibits the performance of the machine.

Overall my impression of the machine is favorable.


			Tom Kiermaier
			(201)457-2271
			    or
			(201)689-7749