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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix
Subject: Re: VMEbus BOF in Phoenix
Message-ID: <8073@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-May-87 16:20:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.8073
Posted: Mon May 25 16:20:21 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 25-May-87 16:20:21 EDT
References: <1243@houxl.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 36

> AT&T will have their VMEbus UNIX System in Phoenix, and it occurred
> to me that there might be some interest in organizing a BOF to talk
> about considerations in porting UNIX to an open-architecture
> environment such as VME...

Well, it depends.  There undoubtedly are interesting things to be said
about both "porting Unix to open-architecture environments" and "how
AT&T built its VMEbus Unix".  It should be noted that the latter is a
*very* small subset of the former, though.  Calling it a "VMEbus BOF"
would be silly, since AT&T is a johnny-come-lately when it comes to
running Unix on VMEbus systems, being behind Sun, Integrated Solutions,
Dual, MIPSCo, probably Motorola, and undoubtedly others.

How much interest you will get depends on whether you are thinking of:

(1) A BOF on porting Unix to open-architecture environments, in which
	the AT&T VMEbus system would serve as one case study among many,
	since lots of other people did the same thing earlier (including,
	let us not forget, Thompson and Ritchie, who DEVELOPED Unix on
	machines that were largely open-architecture).

(2) A BOF about the implementation of the AT&T VMEbus system, in which
	technical staff from a potential competitor would find it worthwhile
	to take notes.

(3) Marketing hype about the AT&T VMEbus system, in which nobody technical
	will bother taking notes because any who attend will be asleep
	within ten minutes.

Speaking for myself, I would attend (1), might attend (2), and would sneer
in passing at (3).  "Would my competition's technical people take notes?" is
an *excellent* litmus test for whether your topic belongs at Usenix, either
as a talk or as a BOF.
-- 
"The average nutritional value    Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
of promises is roughly zero."     {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry