Path: utzoo!censor!becker!bdb
From: bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Accessing PC cards from Amiga (also, NFS)?
Keywords: BridgeBoard, PC, Amiga, Ethernet, NFS, Ameristar
Message-ID: <241@becker.UUCP>
Date: 25 Jan 89 20:12:31 GMT
References: <2482@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <86118@sun.uucp> <228@becker.UUCP> <2052@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Reply-To: bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker)
Organization: G. T. S., Toronto, Ontario
Lines: 56

In article <2052@sbcs.sunysb.edu> rick@sbcs.sunysb.edu (Rick Spanbauer) writes:
+-------------
|In article <228@becker.UUCP>, bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker) writes:
|> In article <86118@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes:
|> >In article <2482@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> (Michael A. Garvin) writes:
|
|> 	hit using the PC-NFS  due to the slowness  of the
|> 	8088 cpu doing the data transfers -  but the cost
|> 	of the Ameristar board is *very* high compared to
|> 	the equivalent  PC-based products.  The future is
|
|	Ahem.  PC-NFS from Sun is US$395 quantity one.  Probably even
|	more in Canada.  Sun charges ~US$399 for an ethernet board, again
+-------------

	A Western Digital ethernet board sells for about
	$180-$200 these days...

+-------------
|	quantity one.  We charge $899, Q1 for our integrated ethernet/nfs/
|	tcp/ip product.  So the PC solution is ~$800 -vs- native Amiga
|	at $899.  A difference of $99 simple does not strike me as
|	"*very* high compared to the equivalent...".  And of course
|	the PC based $800 solution also requires the bridge card in order
|	to be used on the Amiga.  So the systems cost is less for our
|	hw/sw package.  If the complaint is actually that the generic PC
|	equivalent HW or software items costs less than an Amiga widget,
|	understand that there are millions of PC/PC clones, while there
|	are perhaps 1 million or so Amiga.  Less volume => higher cost.
+-------------

	Do you supply FTP & Telnet? Implementations of these are
	in the public domain, and at least in one instance TCP 
	is provided over the serial port as well, in a package which
	runs on Amigas as well as PC's, etc.

+-------------
|					Rick Spanbauer
|					Ameristar
+-------------

	Public Domain NSF is still in the works - I'm not sure when
	it will be available, since some of it is tricky - but it'll
	be there fairly soon...
	Also it won't be all that long before SCSI ethernet boxes
	appear at reasonable prices, and the SCSI folks (or some
	kind net.persons) make some driver software to use them.
	Since the SCSI market isn't limited to one type of machine,
	the potential market volume will be comparatively much higher...

Cheers,
-- 
   _  _/\	Bruce Becker	Toronto, Ont.
   \`o O|	Internet: bdb@becker.UUCP, bruce@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu
    \(")/	BitNet:   BECKER@HUMBER.BITNET
---mm-U-mm---	"Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue" - Oliver North