Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!emory!att!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!hedrick From: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk Subject: Re: Apple IIgs to Sun 2/120? Message-ID: Date: 28 Nov 90 03:46:20 GMT References: <90323.150258UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET> <1990Nov20.100930.26991@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <90326.031555UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET> Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 31 To: UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET The current version of Rutgers CAP will let Suns speak Ethertalk, phase 1. This will let you avoid using a Fastpath if you have Macs connected directly to Ethernet. If your Macs are on Localtalk, then you'll need a Fastpath or equivalent in any case, though there may still be advantages to using Ethertalk. This version of CAP is on rutgers.edu, as src/ru-cap2.tar.Z. The necessary kernel support for Suns (which does not require Sun or Unix source to install, but will only work for 4.0.3 or later) is src/enet.tar.Z. (It is possible to use this code without special kernel support if you have SunOS 4.0 or later, but in order to do without the kernel support you have to use /dev/nit. We believe the performance implications of using it are likely to be unacceptable to many users. On a lightly loaded machine you might get away with it.) We have it running in test mode on a Pyramid, but the kernel support requires Pyramid source to install. The Pyramid version might be the best starting point for ports to other systems, as it uses System V shared memory instead of Sun's mmap, and it can use a somewhat more primitive version of the RPC library. A port to the newest Ultrix should be fairly easy, as Ultrix now includes /dev/enet in the kernel. This is still relatively new software. The current copy has included a few changes to improve reliability, and works pretty well here. But as with any new P.D. software, there may still be problems. There have been some changes in the newest version to allow use on a network without any Appletalk routers. This has received less testing than the rest of the software. There have been a lot of requests for Ethertalk phase 2. I'm still planning to do that, but I'd like to wait until I'm confident in this version before doing anything more to it.