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From: lampi@polari.UUCP (Michael Lampi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: Installing EtherNet Card...
Message-ID: <4484@polari.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jun 91 19:53:10 GMT
References: <9106171559.AA16138@cel.cummins.com>
Organization: R Squared, Redmond, WA (206) 883-3116
Lines: 34

In article <9106171559.AA16138@cel.cummins.com> philip@cel.cummins.com (Philip D. Pokorny) writes:
>Recompile the kernal!!!  Ugghh...  You NEVER have to recompile
>the kernal on an Apollo...  Just put the EtherNet card in the

This isn't about the Ethernet card, but there have been MANY MANY times that
I would have loved to have had the ability to recompile the kernal on Apollo
systems. For example:

   1. Non-ESDI winchesters on DN-3000/3500/4X00/5500?
   2. Truly transparent, low overhead serial muxes?
   3. Alternatives to the graphics offerings?
   4. CD-ROMs 3 or 4 years ago (instead of just now)?
   5. WORMs 4 years ago (NATIVE) instead of the current kludges?
   6. Alternatives to the networking offerings (ARCnet, SCSI, etc.)
   7. Better tape drive support (fast file seeks, density, etc.)
   8. High performance real-time processing
   9. Full erasable optical support 2 or more years ago?
  10. Automatic backup, restore and archiving systems

And this is just for starters!

Unfortunately, even if one has access to the source (as I did), there is no
current mechanism for a third party to send a customer kernal source changes,
patches, whatever, to incorporate the changes at the customer site. Also,
with the kinds of changes Apollo does/did to the OS, the underlying code
would change fairly significantly from release to release. :-(

I guess this is a flame, so...
***FLAME OFF***    :-)


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Michael Lampi            polari!lampi@sumax.seattleu.edu