Can a 386 w/xenix support 20 light users?

[Rick McCalla]

In <16304 at s.ms.uky.edu> jkb at ms.uky.edu (Keith Burton) writes:

>I have a customer who's wanting to use a '386 based system to run a xenix
>project.  The project will involve 20 terminals, but is very light duty.

>The terminals will be manned by people filling in screens in response to
>questions they will ask drop-in clients.  Only around 6-8 of the terminals
>will actually be active at any time, and the workload should be next to
>nothing (ask a question, wait while the client figures out what to say, 
>fill in the field, ask the next question...).

>I'd appreciate knowing first, if it can be
>done and second, if so, what i/o cards are best for such an application.

WE have two systems in house both 386-25 and running SCO Xenix 2.3.2.
On one of them we are running 16 terminals using a Computone AT16 with
only 3-4 ports active at once.  On the other we are running 48 ports
(mostly terminals) with 20 or so busy at any time doing an application
similiar to what you describe.  For this machine we used to use two
Computone AT16 but are presently using 2- 24 port Equinox boards.

The Computone boards provide full modem control but the Equinox are
quite a bit more efficient.

>All this data will be updating several databases.  I've got a free hand here,
>as long as the package is SQL-compatable.  I'd also welcome recommendations
>in that area.

The reason we have been able to run up to 30 users at once with only a 386-25
and 8 Mb of memory is the database we are using - Sculptor.  A very fast 4GL 
with SQL that is extremely efficient on memory.  Contact MPD International
in Cincinnati - Todd Goodwin - for further information.  Even with a full
30 users on the system response time is almost instantaneous.

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