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From: dewolfe@ug.cs.dal.ca (Colin DeWolfe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.emulations
Subject: Re: A/UX on AMAX
Message-ID: <1991Jan15.052135.16104@cs.dal.ca>
Date: 15 Jan 91 05:21:35 GMT
References: <1991Jan10.060309.28669@cs.dal.ca> <37836@cup.portal.com>
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In article <37836@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes:
>dewolfe@ug.cs.dal.ca (Colin DeWolfe) in <1991Jan10.060309.28669@cs.dal.ca>
>writes:
>
>	A strange thought hit me today when I was reading the BYTE article on
>	A/UX and about how it's not worth it if you only need UNIX.
>
>
>Other than the fact it doesn't operate well with less than 4MB RAM and makes
>a lot of assumptions regarding the hardware (i.e. number of serial ports,
>expansion cards installed, etc.) and requires a LOT of disk space, this might
>be an interesting (but expen$ive) experiment (and not one that I'm going to
>underwrite).

Don't blame ya.


>
>
>	I know that this was done on the C=128 with CP/M (I know, different bag
>	of worms), and I don't see why this can't be done with the Mac.  After
>	all, finder is still around and is said to "coexist" with X-Windows,
>	this implies some sort of access to the Mac ROMS.  Of course, this is
>	a BIG performance hit, but remember, this is Apple.
>
>A/UX is NOT known for its speed, 

I didn't try to say it was fast, exactly the opposite
I find the AUX IIfx I have seen to be barely acceptable ( and that's a 40MHz 
machine)

>and tries to gobble up humongous amounts of
>RAM for use as a RAM-disk to hide the brain-damaged hardware architecture of
>Macs (no DMA, no hardware support chips, etc (except, finally, for the Max IIfx
>which uses a 6502 for SCSI support)).  


They use a 6502 for SCSI support?  My god that's horrible...  I haven't
seen one of those since the C64, except for the IIgs (which some one by the
way thinks it can run UNIX)  (I almost keeled over in a laughing fit when I
saw my newsreader prompt me if I wanted to add comp.unix.appleiigs to
my newsrc)

>It very quickly became apparent to me
>that a 68020/68881/68851 Mac II running A/UX is a very poor performer compared
>to even my 68010/MMU 3B1 systems.
>

They have one at the local Apple dealer (Atlantis) which is owned by the same
person who owns one of the Amiga dealerships (Kobetek)  He seems to be pinning
his UNIX hopes on the Mac and won't even consider ordering in a A3000UX, even
though it is better.  He even told me he might not order UNIX for my 3000 when
it is available.  What a schmuck!!! I bought the machine in his shop and he
won;t even sell me UNIX.  Needless, I now frequent (and even work for now) the
other dealer. (They needed a UNIX familiar person, in case they decide to get
a 3000UX)
>
>You've obviously read the BYTE article and seen the prices; 

And I lauged my head off. 
>you'd be MUCH
>better off buying a second Amiga with UNIX than to dork-around with A/UX.
>

Don't worry, that's what I got my 3000 for, along with the speeeeeeeed. 

It was more academic curiosity than anything else.

>Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]