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From: VALDIS@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU (Valdis Kletnieks)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ibm
Subject: Re: Mainframe I/O channel  <-->  PC/UNIX/LAN
Message-ID: <9101272043.AA21491@lilac.berkeley.edu>
Date: 27 Jan 91 20:32:35 GMT
References: <hank%bitnic.BITNET@LILAC.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: Valdis Kletnieks <VALDIS@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU>
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 21

>I also heard of ethernet TCP/IP type connections. They are basically an
>(overpriced, IMHO) UNIX box one end connecting to the mainframe
>(typically channel attach) and another end connect to ethernet.
>However, these are usually very expensive solutions (expensive box and
>expensive mainfame software).

Funny...  neither the IBM 8232, the IBM 3172, the Spartacus box, nor the
BTI boxes run Unix - they're all basically a little box with bus/tag on
one side and an ethernet card on the other.  The BTI box in particular
is quite good price/performance wise - I think they run about $10K
(*dont* quote me, I'm probably wrong) - I've personally stressed one
up to 900 packets/sec, and the folks at RPI have benched FTP throughputs
above a megabyte/sec...

If you're a member of the IBM Higher Education Software Consortium, the
5798-FAL TCP/IP software for VM is essentially free....


                                  Valdis Kletnieks
                                  Computer Systems Engineer
                                  Virginia Polytechnic Institute