What the boards do? LONG (was Re: Access to some UNIX pc hardware...)

Mon Sep 18 11:02:02 AEST 1989

No, the Expansion box cannot double as an hamster cage, toaster oven, 
shoe box, VCR, disk cabinet, etc.. etc.. etc..

Ok, since a lot of you didn't know what these boards are, I feel I should
explain a little what I know.  Some of the facts and figures come from
a very old sales guide on UNIX pc hardware ...  It's not complete, but
has some of the information we're looking for.

o   AT&T UNIX PC Expansion Unit: PEC 37420

	This unit can accommodate 5 UNIX PC expansion cards.  This product 
	is made up of a bus repeater card, the expansion box, and an 
	interconnecting cable.  The unit's repeater card takes up a slot
	in the UNIX pc which give the entire system a total of 7 expansion
	slots.  The cable length is 5 feet, to alow the user to place the
	unit on the floor.  The expansion unit contains a card cage, power
	supply, fan, and circuit "backplane".  The dimensions of the unit
	are:  depth 17 inches, width 6 inches, and height 10 inches.  The
	expansion box will handle any expansion card for the UNIX pc except
	for memory cards and EIA/RAM Combo cards (Dual EIA, no RAM is 
	acceptable).  There is no software required for this product.

o   AT&T UNIX PC Voice Power:

	Provides the capability to run software application packages such
	as VOICE POWER Electronic Mail and VOICE POWER Answering Machine.
	It is the underlying support for all UNIX PC Voice Power applications.
	Prerequisites:  minimum 20MB UNIX PC or 3B1 with release 3.0 or
	later of the system software, one available expansion slot, and
	3MB of free disk space.

	[my comments: the board will allow one to do simple call progress
	 detection on telephone, detect touch tones, ringing, voice, modem
	 tones.  The board digitizes audio signals and stores them as a data
	 file on the hard disk.  The digitized sound can later be played back
	 through the telephone handset or external source.   The board
	 has two audio jacks (audio in, audio out) and two phone jacks
	 (RJ11, line and handset).   One could easily write voice applications
	 like AT&T's AUDIX(tm), Voice Mail packages, Answering machine
	 software, etc.].  

o   AT&T 3270 COAX INTER BRD (IRMA)

	The IRMATM 3270 emulation package contains a communications board
	and bundles software.  The board connects to a 3274/76 type IBM
	controller via coax cabling.  It will operate with both channels
	attached and remove (BSC or SNA/SDLC) controllers.  The software
	provides the product diagnostics, 3270 emulation and IBM mainframe
	file transfer.  The bootable diagnostic diskette provides for
	product checkout independent of the UNIX PC operating system.
	The product will emulate the IBM 3278, Model 2 and the IBM 3279,
	Model S2A & S2B terminals and support all the standard features.
	The color for an IBM 3279 terminal will be handled through screen
	attributes (e.g., highlighting, bold, etc.) on the monochrome
	screen.  The product will support 3270 attribute and extended
	attribute (EAB) characters for field oriented screens.   The 
	following file transfer packages will be provided:  FT/78, IRMAlink
	FT/TSO, IRMAlink FT/CMS, IRMAlink FT/3270.  The IBM mainframe code
	for running FT/CMS and FT/TSO can be uploaded from the UNIX PC using
	the FT/78 package.

There is no information here provided on the AT&T Starlan boards, but
to my knowledge AT&T Starlan is a proprietary network scheme (can be compared
to DEC's DECNET).  No this is not an Ethernet board, and I've gotten several
requests for these which I have no idea where I would get these to be sold.
Although if anyone has two they are willing to sell, let me know! :-)
I don't believe the Starlan board supports anything like the BSD r* commands
(rlogin, rcp, rsh, etc...), TCP/IP or the ftp and telnet commands, what 
is needed here is an Ethernet board.

If anyone has more insight on the Starlan boards, and better yet has had
experience with the UNIX pc version, let me know!  (via email)

Lastly, to answer some reoccuring questions in my past couple of days mail ...

Q:  What's the status of the SCSI board, and will it run in an expansion box?
A:  The status of such a board is still unknown.  Currently I am not involved
    with the people from California or 3B Journal who might be working on
    such a product.   Assuming the product meets all the AT&T s4bus 
    specifications, there should be no reason why it couldn't run in the
    expansion box's slots.

Q:  Where can I get a DOS-73 board?  
A:  I am using my DOS-73 board, therefore it's not for sale or trade. (sorry)
    Last I heard Jan Isley (jan at bagend) had a couple of these for sale around
    ~$350, but I am unsure of his current supply. (Jan you listening?)

Q:  What's a good price for all this hardware?
A:  Really since the hardware is obsolete, the machine is obsolete, I cannot
    give a good value on the hardware.  There is no support for it, if it
    breaks, you're out of luck.   I'm working at the details presently as
    "bargaining agent" for the 3B1 hardware and I will give prices as soon
    as I can.

Q:  Could I write a simple Voice Mail package for the Voice Power board using
    shell scripts?
A:  Yes, with the Voice Power software an example "hotline" application is
    given.  The application comes in shell script form, "C" form, VDA
    (Voice Data Access, a high level programming language), and BASIC (eek).
    The size of the application that will answer the phone, play messages,
    record messages, change outgoing messages, etc.  Is ...

	-rw-r--r--  1 root    sys        8552 Jun 26 00:42 hotline.bas
	-rw-r--r--  1 root    sys        5534 Jun 26 00:42 hotline.c
	-rw-r--r--  1 root    sys        4814 Jun 26 00:42 hotline.sh
	-rw-r--r--  1 root    sys        1433 Jun 26 00:42 hotline.vda
	-rw-r--r--  1 root    sys       17881 Jun 26 00:42 hotline_mac.c

Thanks,
Lenny
-- 
Lenny Tropiano             ICUS Software Systems         [w] +1 (516) 589-7930
lenny at icus.islp.ny.us      Telex; 154232428 ICUS         [h] +1 (516) 968-8576
{ames,pacbell,decuac,hombre,talcott,sbcs}!icus!lenny     attmail!icus!lenny
        ICUS Software Systems -- PO Box 1; Islip Terrace, NY  11752

What the boards do? *LONG* (was Re: Access to some UNIX pc hardware...)

What the boards do? LONG (was Re: Access to some UNIX pc hardware...)