Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu!bob
From: bob@allosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Bob Sutterfield)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: optical disk? diskless?  distribution?
Message-ID: <24896@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 18 Oct 88 14:07:28 GMT
References: <MRD.88Oct15140913@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <24828@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <10296@eddie.MIT.EDU>
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Organization: The Ohio State University Dept of Computer & Information Science
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In article <10296@eddie.MIT.EDU> jbs@eddie.MIT.EDU (Jeff Siegal) writes:
>In article <MRD.88Oct15140913@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> mrd@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Michael DeCorte) writes:
>>2) [...]does the NeXT have enough IO bandwidth to handle a couple of
>>   FAST hd's?
>
>Probably.  It has this custom VLSI I/O processor Jobs calls a
>"mainframe on a chip".  The NuBus runs at 2.5 times the speed of the
>Mac II.  The SCSI runs at full speed (4MB/sec).

If you manage to swamp the SCSI on the first CPU card, it seems (if
they did it right) that you should be able to add another card for
some nominal fee and treat it as another fast I/O processor out on the
NuBus.  String another Ethernet to it (now we've got an IP router or
gateway or...) and connect more SCSI devices to it (now we've got a
hotshot file server).

And how about more display/keyboard/mouse/microphone sets on the
additional cards as well?  Now we've got a multiuser minicomputer in a
cute little black box, if you really want it.  It would look a lot
like the old VS100s - a workstation in a Unibus 780.

NeXT's Mach may some day (if not already) be able to take advantage of
the other CPUs and memory, and schedule threads and processes to run
wherever appropriate.  Then you'd have a 4-CPU multiprocessor running
on the shelf above your desk.  Some Fun!

Now, how about a NeXT NuBus transputer?  How about a NeXT NuBus TAAC?
Or, who was that person at Ames who had a Cray channel-attached?

(Reality Injection: this is probably mostly daydreaming (for now))
-=-
Zippy sez,								--Bob
Today, THREE WINOS from DETROIT sold me a framed photo of
 TAB HUNTER before his MAKEOVER!