Suggestions for 386SX/SVR4 platform

[Chris Lewis]

In article <8808 at fed.FRB.GOV> rcd at fed.frb.gov (Bob Drzyzgula) writes:
>We're a SPARC shop, but are looking to put together a
>couple of inexpensive 386SX boxes to run SVR4 and do uucp
>and SLIP communications. These are not going to be user
>workstations, but we will be doing compiles and stuff there
>to set things up and keep them running. The obvious choice
>seems to be DELL, but so far we've been getting a
>run-around there on pricing for low-end configurations.
>What we have in mind is something like the following:

>	16 or 20 MHz 386SX, roomy tower cabinet
>	8 or 16 MB; SIMMS sockets pref., esp. for 4MB SIMMS
>	SCSI controller
>	300-600 MB SCSI Disk
>	...

This doesn't really look like a low-end configuration.  You'd
be widening your potential vendor base if you went to the 80386DX
processor.  Not to mention boosting your speed by somewhere in the
range of 40% (at the same clock speed).  The price difference between
DX and SX is insignificant when you start talking about 300+ Mb disk
or 8Mb+ memory.  SX's are convenient when you talk about *real*
low-end, shave every last penny, ie: < 4Mb RAM, 1-2 user.  The market
being what it is, you'd often find perfectly reliable DX boards
from lessor-known vendors at prices comparable to SX's from the
better-known vendors that considered the SX worth doing.

You shouldn't have any trouble with reusing other SCSI disks
or tapes.  Other than making sure you have the parameters right
in the system reconfigs.  The 1558's will work if you get an ESDI
controller.  Can't hurt to try (provided you do backups ;-)

>One other thing: does anyone know if internal Telebit 
>modems are commonly supported by SVR4 implementations?

I was under the impression that all internal modems had the
same interface at the device driver level as "dumb" RS232
serial ports.  All you'd have to worry about was the
upper-level configuration, which you'd have to fiddle with
anyways even if the modem was external (eg: UUCP Dialers files).
-- 
Chris Lewis, Phone: (613) 832-0541, Domain: clewis at ferret.ocunix.on.ca
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