How many users _really_ ?

[Jeff Tye]

In article <14760 at watdragon.waterloo.edu>, hjespersen at trillium.waterloo.edu (Hans Jespersen) writes:
> 
> How many CONCURRENT users ( of typical office automation software )
> can you respectfully support on a '386 PC ? I know this is vauge and
> will vary considerably depending on the configuration but anyone want 
> to give it a shot ?

I have customers that support 30 users. How do they do it?

1)  Lot's of memory. 16MB at least or if the BIOS supports it, more.

2)  Intelligent I/O cards for serial ports. Try the Corollary 8X4 mux card
    or the SpecialX mux card. Both offer exceptional performance. Strive to
    balance the load amongst the cluster boxes. Use a mux card that *supports*
    CPU caching. And research your vendor before taking the plunge.

3)  Above all else, install the DPT caching disk controller with 8MB or
    more of disk cache. It really works. Disk I/O is the biggest bottleneck
    in AT class machines.

4)  Tune, tune, tune, that kernel. Layout your disk for optimum use. Give
    the OS plenty of swap space, don't be stingy.

That's how you do it. Take away the I/O burden of the CPU and the humble AT
chassis can support that kind of load for OA and databases. CAD/CAM and
robotics would be a different thing. Oh, and running DOS ala VP/ix and
DOSmerge would subtract from the number of users as well. DOS is such a
pig that it reminds me of some of our governments: take all and give back
very little. :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

-- 
Jeff Tye 
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