Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!orca!tekecs!Zaephod!darylm From: darylm@Zaephod.gwd.tek.com (Daryl V. McDaniel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k Subject: Re: Where can I get parts? Message-ID: <9260@tekecs.TEK.COM> Date: Fri, 16-Oct-87 21:18:15 EDT Article-I.D.: tekecs.9260 Posted: Fri Oct 16 21:18:15 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Oct-87 08:06:57 EDT References: <229@trwrc.UUCP> <16264@amdahl.amdahl.com> Sender: nobody@tekecs.TEK.COM Reply-To: darylm@Zaephod.UUCP (Daryl V. McDaniel) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville, OR Lines: 58 >In article <229@trwrc.UUCP> agnew@trwrc.UUCP (R.A. Agnew) writes: > >I've had the same bad experience. Many distributors are dropping > >national because of their lack of popularity, especially in light > >of the 80386. ... > >... The fact > >that the NS32032 and NS32082 won't run Unix until mask revision "M" > >or so doesn't help much! I wish that I didn't have thousands of $ of my > >own money and 6 years of my life invested in NS stuff so that I could > >switch to 80386's. ... > >... Motorola and Intel > >seem to encourage we engineers to experiment, while National seems to > >treat us like second class citizens who don't deserve to use state of the > >art parts. (You out there National ??) > >It is possible for someone to forward this person's letter to some higher-ups >at National? Comments like these can be helpful if certain peole are made >aware of them and make some effort to try and correct the situation. > >chongo <> ./\oo/\. While it is true that the National product has gotten somewhat of a bad rep' many of your problems may be the fault of your distributor. My local experience with NSC and the 32000 family has been quite good. I have been involved with the 32000 since 1981 or so when I was with another company. Since then I have built several machines for customers and myself. Early in the life of the product there were many problems. The ones which caused the most problem were programmers using illegal instructions or addressing modes, misinterpretation of MMU operation, and temperature sensitivity of the chips. In all cases the local NSC representative, (manufacturers rep), and NSC people from Santa Clara were most helpful. Whenever I received a part which was defective it was replaced. I have been running UNIX on a 32032 based system for several years now. The CPU is rev H and the MMU is revL. I wouldn't recommend using anything prior to: 32016 Rev. S Process improvements enhance long-term reliability 32082 Rev. N Process improvements, tighter spec. conformance 32C201 Rev. C Lowers system noise dramatically 32332 Rev. C QUICK 32032 Rev. H Improved temperature stability. 32202 Rev. F You may say that sure, a large company will get good support while an individual gets scorned. Well, except for the last three years (When I have done the least with NSC) I worked for a company with only 3 people. Standard Disclaimer: I don't work for NSC and receive no benefit from my comments. My employer doesn't know I am doing this and I don't represent them. This is an expression of my feelings based upon prior experience. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Daryl V. McDaniel (w) tektronix!hammer!darylm Graphics Workstation Division Tektronix, Inc., POB 1000, MS 61-215 Wilsonville, OR. 97070 (503) 685-2298