??? Harris NightHawk 4400 Realtime

[Staff- Bob S Turner]

In article <1991Mar11.132225.13679 at hubcap.clemson.edu> traymund at uiuc.edu (Tim Raymund) writes:
>
>We've gotten a good offer from Harris on a NightHawk 4400, an
>88100 based realtime unix machine.  This offer competes with an
>offer from DEC on a DECstation 5000.

I can't answer specifics about the 4400, but I can answer general
question on Harris Equipment. (We are the happy owners of an HCX-9) 


>1. What's the SPEC rating (or MFLOPS) of the 4400 as offerred?
>2. Are we getting: 
>       SCSI interface?

Harris supports SCSI and SMD on the VME bus so I would expect SCSI to
be available.

>       Eithernet interface?

I know all machines support TCP/IP and Ethernet. Bets are on a 15pin AUI
>       A good FORTRAN compiler?

Harris has an excellant compiler -  hf77 (suprise :-) it supports most VAX 
extensions and all the wonderful Harris H-series extensions

>       A console/workstation?
>       8mm tape drive?

Don't know about any of the above.

>3. Does their UNIX support NFS?  Network File Serve: allows disks to

Yes no problem here. We use it on the HCX.
>   Does it include X11R4? X11 is a standard windowing system used 

I'm not sure.  But it could be added easily.

>4. What will it cost in maintenance: hardware and software?  Currently

Again depending on your configuration.

>Potentially, a 4 CPU version of the 4400 could be almost 10x the

[Opinion Mode on]

You didn't mention the OS you were getting (there are three UNIX versions
commercial, realtime or C2 secure) so I don't know the application.
 
Harris is very strong right now in real-time systems for data collection and
simulation. The Nighthawk's context switch speed is among the best in the 
industry. If you have a real-time application Harris is your best choice.

Otherwise, its a more difficult decision to make.

[Opinion mode off]

 
Bob Turner                    Network Manager, School of Engineering
513-229-3171                           turner at udecc.engr.udayton.edu
Univ. of Dayton, Engineering Computing Center-KL211, Dayton OH 45469
"Its the end of the net as we know it..And I feel fine"
-- 
====================================================================
Bob Turner                    Network Manager, School of Engineering
513-229-3171                           turner at udecc.engr.udayton.edu
Univ. of Dayton, Engineering Computing Center-KL211, Dayton OH 45469

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Steve Stevenson                            {steve,fpst}@hubcap.clemson.edu
Department of Computer Science,            comp.parallel
Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-1906 (803)656-5880.mabell