How Good is the AT&T 6300 Plus?

[Mark Gauldin]

> I haven't seen much on the net about the AT&T 6300 Plus.  Can
> anyone tell me:
> 
>   - how the UNIX available for it compares with versions of UNIX
>     that run on other micros (in particular, the PC-AT)
> 
>   - how IBM-PC compatible it is (does it run all those PC-DOS
>     applications?  Does it accept IBM expansion cards?) 
> 
>   - how reliable it is
> 
> Both praise and horror stories are most welcome.  If you looked
> at the 6300 Plus and decided on another machine, can you tell
> me why?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Mitchell Gass
> {decwrl,hplabs}!pyramid!amiga!mitch

I had planned to just reply via email, but after seeing some of the
other responses on the net, I felt I needed to try to even out the
tone.

The 6300+ is a 80286-based IBM compatible manufactured by Olivetti
for sale by AT&T. It and the 6300 are the same machines that
Olivetti markets in Europe (and which are, I believe, the best
selling compatibles in Europe). There are three basic
configurations available:

	- dual floppy (not sure what size floppies)
	- 20Mb hard disk + 360K floppy
	- 20Mb hard disk + 1.2Mb floppy

All three configurations come with 512K RAM on the motherboard and
can be expanded to 1Mb by simply plugging 256K chips into empty
sockets on the motherboard. There are two keyboards available: an
IBM-style (CNTL key by your left pinkie, fcn keys down the left
side) and an AT&T (or whatever) style (CNTL key southwest of 'Z',
fcn keys across the top). Both keyboards have a mouse port on the
back. Both a monochrome (green) and color monitor are available.
You can also plug in a 80287 coprocessor chip. The 6300+ comes with
MS-DOS 3.1 and GW-BASIC.

I have a 6300+, and we have four (soon to be five) others in our
department, as well as a number of others throughout our
organization. All of them worked right out of the box and we've had
no problems since. The hard disk is very fast (my perception, not
measured) and very quiet. The 1.2Mb floppy is great - fast, quiet,
and you don't have huge piles of disks laying around. We've run the
following software packages with no problems:

	Lotus 123 (both Release 1 and 2)
	dBase III
	Sidekick
	Turbo Lightning
	Superkey
	Supernotes
	Crosstalk XVI
	Microsoft Windows
	Desqview
	Norton Utilities (which gives a performance index of 6.3 times
			  a PC - and yes, I know that's misleading :-))
	Harvard Total Project Manager
	Primavera
	PC vi

The only software I've had any problems with is Fastback, and I
suspect that's because Fastback isn't set up to deal with the
1.2Mb drives. 

We haven't added any expansion boards yet, although we plan to
soon. However I do know several people who have added some of the
more popular boards to their 6300's (e.g. the AST family,
Hayes-type modem boards, etc.) with no problem.

UNIX for the 6300+ is UNIX System V Release 2 with OS Merge. OS
Merge is a utility that lets you run MS-DOS (or MS-DOS application
programs, such as Lotus) as a UNIX process. Files can be traded
back and forth between UNIX and DOS, and you can have a DOS-only
partition on your hard disk for programs that are copy protected in
such a way as to make them incompatible with the joint UNIX/DOS
file system (this DOS-only partition is accessible as drive e: when
you're running a DOS process). I had a preproduction version of
UNIX, but it had the sort of bugs you'd expect in preproduction
software, and I'm not currently using it. My production version is
on it's way.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the 6300+. Yes, I know I work for
AT&T, but I'm in a part of the company far removed from PC development
or sales and I'm trying to give an honest review as a user. There's
no way I'd put myself through the punishment of using a system I
didn't like day after day - there are just too many alternatives.

Mitch, if you have any other questions, send me email and I'll help
if I can. By the way, if you want to see more about the 6300+ (or
the 6300, or the 7300) on the net, take a look at net.micro.att.

		Mark Gauldin
		AT&T Bell Laboratories
		...ihnp4!ihlpg!gauldin
		(312) 979-5377