Unix on a VAXCluster ??

[Chris Torek]

>In article <2359 at umd5.umd.edu> I wondered
>>... What exactly does using VMS cluster hardware buy you ...

In article <8309 at eddie.MIT.EDU> jbs at eddie.MIT.EDU (Jeff Siegal) answers:
>If by 4BSD networking you mean Ethernet, "cluster hardware" or CI, is
>much faster.

Really?  A typical VAX cpu has quite a bit of trouble keeping up
with the mere 10 Mb/s on the Ethernet.  Making the data paths faster
(70 Mb/s, I believe) is not likely to do much unless you also use
a low-overhead protocol; such are available for BSD.  (We have never
really felt the need for one here.  I suppose it might be nice for
rdump.)

>Also, it lets you hook up to DEC's HSC70 ... I don't know if this
>will apply to Ultrix users, though, since the HSC70 somehow provides
>support for the VMS (Files-11) file system

(I have heard that it uses RMS, or something akin, internally.  Of
course, since it is really just a PDP-11, you could reprogram the
thing.  I wonder whether it boots via DECNET?)

>(or does/will Ultrix support mounting a F11 disk?).

Yes.  DEC have support for the ODS-II file system (to be pronounced
`odious too' :-) ) via their GFS now.

Most of this is, of course, rumour picked up at USENIXes and the
like; contact DEC marketing for solid (hah!) information.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Computer Science, +1 301 454 7163
(still on trantor.umd.edu because mimsy is not yet re-news-networked)
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