Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ncar!oddjob!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!mmm!schultz
From: schultz@mmm.UUCP (John C Schultz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k
Subject: ICM3216 upgrades
Message-ID: <746@mmm.UUCP>
Date: 28 Apr 88 03:41:22 GMT
Organization: SERC * 3M Company, St. Paul, MN
Lines: 26
Keywords: National ICM3216  upgrades

I am looking for comments about software/hardware upgrades to my
personnal ICM3216.

For those lucky people who did not buy one, an ICM3216 was originally
a good deal.  A cheap, fast 32 bit UNIX engine which benchmarks, for
compute bound operations, about as fast an 11/780.  Unfortunately,
Nat'l support and enthusiasm for this product seems to have vanished.

My software level is National UNIX (tm) V2.0v2, vers 2.5_b. This
software level (and my hardware apparently) has several bugs (notably a
ulimit problem) and disk IO limitations.

UNIX V3 from National is $640 for the software and another $280 for
the manuals.  Additionally, my board (Rev A) is so old that it would
have to be returned to be upgraded to the latest rev level - a small
matter of another $1000.

The latest etch rev lev, in case people are interested is level J 3,4,
or 5.

Does anyone know of a cheaper way to upgrade?  I recall that some people 
have a BSD port for the ICM  - could someone tell me who?  What level
of hardware does IT run on?

Jim Hervey (408) 562-4713 is the person I contacted at National about
the upgrades.  He is difficult to contact since he never returns
phone calls.