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From: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: net.dcom
Subject: Re: Re: TCP/IP terminal concentrators
Message-ID: <12364@amdcad.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Jul-86 20:52:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdcad.12364
Posted: Thu Jul 17 20:52:12 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Jul-86 06:04:19 EDT
References: <890@bu-cs.UUCP> <12236@amdcad.UUCP> <2529@diku.UUCP>
Reply-To: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai)
Organization: AMD, Sunnyvale, California
Lines: 46

In article <2529@diku.UUCP> krus@diku.UUCP (Lars Povlsen) writes:
>In article <12236@amdcad.UUCP> phil@amdcad.UUCP writes:
>>This is an advantage. Much better than running around updating forty
>>or fifty floppies like the CS100 requires. (We don't have Ethernet
>>terminal servers in large scale use but when we do we'll have that
>>many to maintain.)
>
>If you have non diskbased cs100 with a NCS150 control server, you will
>only need one copy of the software for cs100's or cs1's on the
>network.

We have multiple Unix boxes which can make perfectly good boot
servers.  Why should I buy a proprietary solution like an NCS150 when
Encore supplies free boot server source code? And don't forget you're
not just buying one NCS150, you have to buy two for each site if you
don't want all your terminal servers down when the NCS150 is down.
(The NCS150 is used for name service and boot service, I think?)
There is also a limit on the order of 20 to 40 terminal servers an
NCS150 can serve based on the amount of configuration information
stored on their little floppy.

>But still, you have little control over booting a box, and it would be
>nice to have the Bridge boxes to try various boot servers on failure,
>like the primary and secondary nameserver method.

The Annex sends out a broadcast boot request so you can have an
arbitrary number of boot servers.

Bridge Comm boxes are a closed architecture and proprietary, like IBM
MVS/VTAM/CICS. The Annex is open and allows you to use any Unix box as
a boot server. The Annex conforms to standards, like full TCP/IP with
ICMP echo, 802.3 style Ethernet transceiver connectors, 4.2 BSD rlogin,
RIP and rwho (BCI boxes have none of this).  Choose what you want.

(ask me about how Bridge Comm violates the 802.3 AUI cable connector
spec, causing AUI connections to be unreliable.)

(I thought about comparing BCI to System V, but at least System V
is like Unix. I think BCI is more like MVS.)

-- 
 The US Army uses 22 caliber size bullets in their assault rifles (M-16).

 Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720
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