bell tech vs microport (I'm going to upgrade)

[Dave Remien]

In article <570 at comdesign.CDI.COM> pst at canary.cdi.com (Paul Traina) writes:
>I'm currently an owner of Microport SV/AT (286),  and I'm in the process of
>upgrading my machine.  I've just purchased an RLL disk controller, and am
>going to get a 386 in the very near future.  I know uport SV/AT 2.4 supports
>the RLL disk controller, so my first idea was just going with uport.
>

Don't know about Bell Tech support for an RLL controller; uPort V3.0e
can. My Bell Tech has the WD1007 ESDI controller, and works *very* well.


>However, since I am going to get a 386, I'm trying to decide which way I
>should go (uport vs bell tech).  
>
>Does bell tech support the Adaptec 2732 RLL controller?
>How much would it cost to purchase a complete bell tech system?
>(I hear the uport upgrade will cost me slightly under $500).

A quote from Bell Tech recently was that the entire UNIX and software
development package was going to be about $1100 to $1200 to *upgrade*
from System V 3.0 to 3.2; due to AT&T claims that it was essentially a
new system.

>
>Who is more reliable these days?  I've been reasonably satisfied with my
>uport equipment,  but the idea of running X on my home computer is nudging
>me towards Bell Tech.  Have they come out with an X11 port for their blitter
>board yet?
>

Um, we've got the X10 package for the Blit board in our Bell engine, and
it's less than reliable (freezes several times per week, under moderate
to light usage. Sometimes you can call in over the network and croak X;
sometimes not).  Running plain UNIX, it's dead reliable.  Running SNAP
2.0 TCP, there are some glitches, but the people who supply Bell with
TCP/IP called me Wednesday, and told me that there is a new version
(2.1) available, and appeared to be very concerned about the other
problem I had (less won't wait for a character at end of page over TCP
connection).  Bell is hard at work on X11; but they won't quote a
delivery date.  Microport is also looking hard at X11, but haven't
settled on a package (as of a couple of weeks ago; last time I talked to
John Plocher).  The only crashes I've had with Microport 3.0e in the
last month have been when the 8 port dumb digiboard gets a bunch of
trash thrown at it.  Needless to say, I'm replacing it with a smart
board. 

>
>------
>Paul Traina				To believe that what is true for
>{uunet|pyramid}!comdesign!pst		you in your private heart is true
>pst at cdi.com				for all men, that is genius.

To summarize: I like both packages; Microport because they talk to a
much wider range of hardware, and have been quite responsive (thanks to
John Plocher and John Sully) of late (last six months); and Bell
(specifically Alan Holmes) has been very accomodating, though their
take-it-or-leave-it software policy may not be for everyone.

And I'm really dying to get my hands on X11 for a '386, with say 1280 by
1024 by 256 color graphics.


-- 
Dave Remien - WINCO Computer Engineering Group (only somewhat confused, now)
208-526-3523 Paths: ...!bigtex!pmafire!dave | ...!ucdavis!egg-id!pma386!dave