Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!ts
From: ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Switch to FoxBase
Message-ID: <17628@cup.portal.com>
Date: 26 Apr 89 11:44:28 GMT
References: <22863@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <11943@ut-emx.UUCP> <22966@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <1601@ccnysci.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
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The SCSI based Ethernet adaptors are OK for a Mac plus ( since you
have no other choice ), but on an SE or a II you do better with
a card.

A Dove FastNet III card costs less than a Dove or Kinetics SCSI Ethernet
box, and I think it is about the same as a Nodem.

If you want to use your SE expansion slot for an accelerator rather
than a network card, Dove has a card that has an acceletator and
an ethernet interface.

The main problem is SCSI overhead.  The SCSI Manager is slow ( actually,
the 5380 is kinda slow, too ).  It takes 2 or 3 milliseconds to do a
SCSI command.

Consider sending a small packet ( AppleTalk has many small packets ).
LocalTalk can send a small packet in less than a millisecond.  A SCSI
ethernet adaptor would still be busy getting the command to the SCSI
box!

So, for speed, SCSI ethernet does not really win over LocalTalk.

On the other hand, if you've got a lot of users, SCSI ethernet will
probably win over LocalTalk, so it still may be worthwhile.

					Tim Smith

Disclaimer: I am not an impartial observer, since the company I work
for wrote most of Dove's FastNet software.