Are there any BSD-derived UNIX versions for 386's?

[Larry Wagner]

storch at m.cs.uiuc.edu (Matthew Storch) writes:

>Larry,
>	Could you please post or email me the name and phone number of the 
>place where you bought you latest 386i?  Also, do you which issue of Byte (or
>any other major magazine) has a review of the machine, back when it first came
>out?  I mentioned Byte because I think the 386i was on the cover...but I'm not
>sure.
>	In case I have difficulty locating an article, do you happen to know
>if the 19" monitor is any sort of standard display (i.e. might it be useable
>on another machine someday, and is it replaceable if it breaks?).  Also, do
>you know if the hard drive is SCSI, ST506/412 or some other standard?
>	The machine sounds like a good buy IF it's not full of proprietary
>parts...
>	Thanks,
>	Matt

Don't remember anymore which magazines had reviews of the 386i.

The 386i's I know of here (around KSU campus) all have the color 16" SONY monitors.
These all work with Sun's 1152x900 pixel 8-plane frame buffer.  I have not yet
seen the 19" color monitor (since I have not received the machine yet).  I think it
is an Hitachi.  Since it uses the same 1152x900 frame buffer as the 16" monitor,
was only $50 more from this vendor, and we were interested in having a machine with
more surface area to reduce the amount of window overlap without selecting fonts that
were unreadable, we went for it.  Hopefully, we won't be disappointed.  The 16" monitor
is very good and hopefully we will feel the same way about the 19" monitor.

Since both monitors use the same frame buffer, the cabling will be the same.
Ours has three separate (RCA?) connectors for the red, green, and blue inputs, and
a sync connector on the back of the monitor.  This sort of connections are common
for many workstations and image analysis equipment, so the monitor should be
replaceable and/or useable on other machines.

The hard drives are SCSI drives.

The basic machine contains proprietary parts in the sense that if the machine
itself fails or has problems that need repair, you will need to go to Sun to
have it fixed or to a third-party vendor who can repair Sun workstations.  This
is typical of workstation machines.  Thus, if such a problem occurs, it will
probably be more expensive to repair than a comparable problem with a PC.

However, all of the add-on devices such as disk drives, extra serial ports, etc.
can be handled through other vendors.  The 386i is a workstation running SunOS
with the capability of running DOS (multiple sessions) simultaneously using
the 386's virtual 8086 mode.  It cannot run DOS only since it does not have
a PC compatible rom.  It comes with one serial and parallel port, a SCSI port,
and an ethernet port. It has 3 AT/XT compatible slots and one XT compatible slot,
therefore PC-compatible peripherals can be installed in the machine.  The peripherals
can be accessed under Unix (if you have the appropriate drivers) and/or under DOS.

As with all used equipment, you should not rush out and purchase it without
knowing what you are getting into.  Since we currently have a 386i and are
familiar with what it can and can't do, we felt that it was the right thing
for us to do in our situation.  We know that Sun is not going to come out with
any OS upgrades for the machine and will be dropping hardware and software support
in 1995.

Well, here is the compiled list my student worker put together on vendors selling
386i's.

Vendor                        Contact               Phone #      price    Color Sz Disk VGA !GR Accel Ram tape manuals os   warranty
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Electro Rent                  Ed Dorn               415.964.5500     4400       16   91 NO  NO          8 NO   386i    yes  120day
Spectron Corp                 Chuck Hughes          206.827.9317 ????? n/a
Marathon Computers -- BEST    Tom Hastings          408.395.7354     4295       16  327 NO  NO          8 NO   386i    yes  30 day
Cal Tech                      gsb at bach.caltech.edu  818.356.4574  2500 obo      16    0 NO  NO          8 NO   FULL    yes  as-is
GenStar                       Jerry Backzkowski     800.422.3300     4500   16 n/a? 155 556 NO          8  629 FULL    yes  90days
Univ. Washington              Joe Picciano          206.543.3666     4600       16  155 NO  NO         12 NO   FULL    yes  as-is
Minicomputer Exchange         Brandon               408.733.4400     4100       16   91 NO  NO          8 NO   NO      yes  30day eligible for SUN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the one that gave the lowest bid for our specified configuration:


Solar Systems -- Steve Johnston -- 8220 154th Ave, N.E. 
                                   Westpark Building K
                                   Redmond, WA 98052
1.800.253.5764
1.206.869.9354
1.206.869.2345 (FAX)
--
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Larry E. Wagner                     | wagner at chepil.weru.ksu.edu
USDA-ARS Wind Erosion Research Unit | wagner at matt.ksu.ksu.edu
105B East Waters Hall, KSU          | ...!{rutgers,texbell}!ksuvax1!weru!wagner
Manhattan, KS 66506                 |phone (913)532-6807
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