Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!stan!dce
From: dce@Solbourne.COM (David Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MIPS as Mac servers ?
Message-ID: <1117@marvin.Solbourne.COM>
Date: 14 May 89 19:07:58 GMT
References: <600smithw@yvax.byu.edu>
Reply-To: dce@Solbourne.com (David Elliott)
Organization: Solbourne Computer Inc., Longmont, Colorado
Lines: 50

In article <600smithw@yvax.byu.edu> smithw@yvax.byu.edu writes:
>Anyone out there have experience with MIPS machines as Mac file servers?
>MIPS has produced its own Mac environ. software called Ushare.  It looks
>great on paper.....terrific speed etc. Works over ethernet or localtalk
>set ups.

UShare is actually from IPT (Information Presentation Technologies),
who have a new product (or maybe a new version of UShare) that provides
peer-to-peer networking services for Macs.  Alexis Rosen has said that
he will review the new software soon.

The UShare package provides a number of services.

	* It provides AppleShare volumes mounting services.  That
	is, you can mount a directory on a Unix machine and use it as
	any other AppleShare volume, with the added advantage of the
	Unix machine running NFS.

	* It provides two-way printing services; you can print to
	your Unix printers from a Mac, or to your Mac printer from
	Unix.

	* It provides a DA interface to Unix mail.

	* It provides a system administration interface on
	the Mac for the Unix machine (using MacWorkstation).

	* There is a terminal emulator.  At one time, this was
	a simple text interface, though a port of NCSA Telnet
	was being done back in December.

	* It provides a way to switch-launch using a Unix "virtual
	disk".  This means that you can boot from a floppy and
	run from the Unix machine; no hard disk necessary.

One advantage that MIPS has is that you can plug an IPT localtalk board
into an M/120 AT-bus slot and have LocalTalk available for your
non-ethernet machines without the added cost of a Kinetics box.  With
ethernet, your disk speed is faster than most hard disks are capable
of.  Another is that there is software that has been ported to the MIPS
platform that is front-ended by the Mac.  This gives you the advantage
of a very fast compute server

I worked on this project last fall, but have been away from MIPS for
long enough that I'm no longer in touch with the product.  For more
information, contact Jim Mannos at MIPS or contact IPT directly.

-- 
David Elliott		dce@Solbourne.COM
			...!{boulder,nbires,sun}!stan!dce