What OS should we use? What hardware? 286/386... (*LONG*)

[William E. Davidsen Jr]

In article <300 at icus.UUCP> lenny at icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano) writes:
} [...]
}o    Is Microport UNIX System V/386 the answer?  Do they have drivers that will
}     support 3rd party serial port boards (4-6 ports using the RJ-45 modular
}     scheme?)    

I think Bell Technology sells what you want, 6 port smart serial with
drivers. They also have tape drives, although they're expensive.

}o    Is Interactive's 386/ix the answer?   Do they have drivers...?

I don't know about the drivers, but check the C compiler before you buy.
My experience was totally negative. The console driver was not totally
reliable, but I don't remember details.

}o    Is SCO Xenix the answer?  Will be have compatibility between UNIX-and-
}     Xenix? :-)   Do they have drivers...?

SCO has drivers for ARNET boards, I believe both smart and dumb but my
manuals not here, and Bell Tech has its serial boards. AT&T is in bed
with everybody these days, including SCO and Microsoft. Microsoft says
that a future release will support both Microsoft binary standard and
COFF format.

}o    What hardware is suggested?   386 box, tape units, port boards, vendors?

For your application you probably want to go IBM or COMPQ.  There have
been a lot of reports of trouble with the model 80 and 387 chip at
20MHz, though.  Bell Tech has been good to me, but is not cheap.  I'm
ordering an "Archive" tape drive from Tek-Aids, two people in the local
UNIX users group have them and like them, but I won't know myself for a
few weeks.

}o    Can we support 80286 machines (IBM AT's) running Microport UNIX System V
}     with the 386 machine, if we can compile with the 286 instruction set?
}     Is this possible?  Or do we need a IBM AT/286 machine?

Xenix/386 cross compiles for Xenix/286 and MS-DOS.

}UUCP     : ...{mtune, ihnp4, boulder, talcott, sbcs, bc-cis}!icus!lenny 


-- 
	bill davidsen		(wedu at ge-crd.arpa)
  {uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me