Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hpfcso!hppad!kempff
From: kempff@hppad.HP.COM (John Kempff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: HP X Terminal info
Message-ID: <1050001@hppad.HP.COM>
Date: 1 Mar 90 04:11:01 GMT
References: <1063@esatst.yc.estec.nl>
Organization: HP Panacom Automation Div Waterloo, Ont.
Lines: 49

/ hppad:comp.sys.hp / burzio@mmlai.UUCP (Tony Burzio) /  7:38 am  Feb 23, 1990 /
In article <1063@esatst.yc.estec.nl>, arne@yc.estec.nl (Arne Lundberg) writes:
> Our salesman has been talking about the new X terminals from HP
>  - How do they compare to the traditional X terminals 
>    from NCD and Visual etc?
>  - What is the speed compared to a lowcost HP workstation, 
>    this means a 340 or similar.
>  - Noise level, are they without a fan?
>  - How is server downloading, font access and login handled?
>    Support for XDMCP?

I saw a color HP X terminal at UniForum in DC last month.  While I
wasn't allowed to try and break it (:-) I was impressed with its' 
speed.  Windows update instantly after a move, and new windows appear
faster than on our 370TurboSRX.  There is a very intuitive series of
set-up screens, so configuring the display should be very easy even for
novice users.  Very nice.  When choosing an X terminal over a workstation,
you have to ask yourself if 1) CPU power is sufficient elsewhere (the
X terminal doesn't have any) and 2) how much RAM will your applications
need (large widget programs will bomb on a low RAM X terminal, and at
~$500 per MB RAM this could push X terminal cost up to a WStation).  A
problem with the HP X terminal, which is different from NCD, is that
the X terminal can only startup from an HP computer.  Our local SE
said that ports of the HP X terminal boot software are in progress, but
don't count on fast software releases from HP :-)  I didn't notice if
it had a fan, but HP fans seem to all be very quiet (when compared to
a uVAX2000 anyway :-)  Visual X terminals seem to be quite slow in
comparison to the new HP.  Our on-site demo showed many bugs and a
very confusing set-up sequence, although the sales reps did say that
it works much better with X11R3, which is supposed to be coming in the
mythical V7 of HP-UX.  NCDs' terminal seemed to be equally fast as
the HP, and they also support DECnet.  Forget SLIP RS-232 communications
for X, it's too slow.

Given a choice, I like the HP, but NCDs' terminal is more flexible
for multi-vendor environments.  Get a demo of both first.

Network hint for the day:  Do NOT have X terminals and discless UNIX
machines on the same ETHERNET as a VAX cluster.  The performance will
be much worse, since the Suns and VMS VAXen seem to compete about who
can overload the network fastest :-)  We use a bridge to contain
the VAX cluster traffic.

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Tony Burzio               * Beware raiders!
Martin Marietta ADTO East *
mmlai!burzio@uunet.uu.net *
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