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From: darrelj@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Darrel VanBuer)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: VAX 11/785
Message-ID: <983@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Apr-84 11:03:03 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.983
Posted: Tue Apr 10 11:03:03 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Apr-84 06:08:08 EST
References: <406@bnl.UUCP> <3340@brl-vgr.ARPA> <335@opus.UUCP>
Reply-To: darrelj@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Darrel VanBuer)
Organization: System Development Corporation, Santa Monica
Lines: 23

The biggest problem I have with large systems and even larger systems like a
785 is uptime reliability.  Our 780 occupies some eight cabinets (processor,
extra massbus and unibus space, disks, tapes) most of which contain
components whose failure kill the whole system.  To support the same 50 users
with workstations would be about 50 quarter-size cabinets (more total
hardware) but none of whose failure affects more than a few users.
I grant that our VAX has excellent availability on the whole, but it's size
makes problems which do occur time-consuming to isolate and repair, and
require much more scheduled down-time for enhancements and maintenance.

A further benefit of workstations is the availability of a lot of spare
cycles which can be devoted to a more supportive user interface for
interactive activities (e.g. large bitmap display per user vs. a limit of
six VAX stations per 780).

-- 
Darrel J. Van Buer, PhD
System Development Corp.
2500 Colorado Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90406
(213)820-4111 x5449
...{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,sdccsu3,trw-unix}!sdcrdcf!darrelj
VANBUER@USC-ECL.ARPA