4D35 stuff

[Frank Perdicaro]

Our 4D35s are not here yet, but I have been thinking about them a bit 
lately.  I have a few thoughts.

1) I understand the broad range of utility of the 4D35 main memory scheme,
and it looks to me to be a good idea.  I think that in a year, SGI users
will think as I do ( and as SGI does ).

2) It seems to me that the 4D35 motherboard has all the makings of a modem
built in.  It has fast, 18 bit sound IO -- this should be sufficient
to implement most modem protocols.  It has a few terminal ports.  A few
transistors and a opto-isolator, some wire and a few connectors should be 
all that is needed to make a modem out of one tty port and the audio
port.  Of course one would need an application program that emulated a 
well known modem, but that should not be too difficult.  Can anybody 
comment on the feasability of this idea?
How about some hardware and a kernel-resident driver that lets me do
  modem = open ( READ|WRITE, "/dev/modem1" )
  result = ioctl ( modem, MO_HANGUP );
  ...
  result = ioctl ( modem, MO_DIAL, number );
  ... 
  result = write ( modem, text_to_modem_speak(message_buffer_out));
  result = read ( modem, modem_speak_to_text(message_buffer_in));
  ... 
  as a cheap option?
If you were really working, you could use out-of-telephony-band data
( or just the other track if working in stereo ) to perform the ioctl 
stuff, and free up the tty port.

3) SGI should really sell a 6U VME expansion box that looks like a PI.  
Similar to the Personal File expansion box, this box could plug into
a PI.  The layout of the 4D35 seem to beg for this.  
Note that you can use all the VME hardware on the returned IP6 boards,
some disk mounting hardware from PROTOTYPE Personal File, and a pop 
riveter to solve about half of the problem in a few minutes.

4) AT&T's annoucement of Appletalk support in SVR4 should be combinded 
with those LocalTalk-standard connectors on the back of the 4D35, making
the 4D35 a FAST Appletalk ( LocalTalk and EtherTalk ) to EFS, NFS and
TCP/IP gateway.  Do this soon please, and make it cheap.
-- 
	Frank E Perdicaro, Systems Admin, etc.		Xyvision Design Systems
   LEGALIZE Guns, drugs and cash...today.		101 Edgewater Drive
inhouse:  frank at bugs 					Wakefield MA
outhouse: contex!frank at uunet.uu.net			018801285