Bell Tech Unix Review #2

[Dimitri Rotow]

In article <195 at focsys.UUCP>, larry at focsys.UUCP (Larry Williamson) writes:
> 
> This is a review of my experience with the Bell Tech Unix.
> 
[Larry writes a balanced review where a few points need updates ...]

> . no cmos ram update commands (ie. setup in uport)
>   if you want to modify the realtime clock or other
>   cmos ram parameters, you must write your own program. It's not very
***** Well, not really ... most of us PC jocks just use the "SETUP" program
every PC on earth comes with, either on floppy or in ROM.

> . So far our Everex Streamer (QIC36 interface card, long card) does not
>   work. The tape driver is 'just a little different'. I don't know yet
>   for sure if it is a bt problem
***** You're right ... 
We don't sell a driver for Everex's product: that's why it doesn't
work.  

> . floppy access is SLOW. cpio & tar are 3-4 times slower than uport/286
***** Man are you right!  We dump on Intel and AT&T about three times a 
week on this one.  It's *much* faster in Release 3.1 and Release 3.2, thank
God.

> . system seems slow in some ways 
>   . always swapping
>   . lots of disk access
>   . I have 2.5 meg memory 60 Meg disk

That's because you have too little RAM.  Remember, X (together with all of 
the networking extras, like RFS) takes RAM.  That you *can* run the system
in as little as 2MB doesn't mean it is sensible to do so.

> . does not support RLL
>   . Oh yea, they say that they support RLL, but it's a farce. I've got the
...
>     on the disk. I'm stuck with 17. BT says I need a special rom that will
>     define a drive type that has 26 sectors per track. I should by this from
>     intel, they say. Intel says, "a what? never heard of it!".

Larry, surely you know that virtually the entire PC AT world lives and dies by
the contents of the disk table in the BIOS ROM.  For three years now disk
drive support for DOS and a host of other operating systems has expected an
accurate list of disk drives in the BIOS ROM ... it's a way of life in the AT
world.  Yes, I know that it's neat to have an O/S that doesn't care about the
contents of the ROM (within limits), but part of the value of buying the
*right* clone is getting a well rounded disk drive table in the BIOS.  Lots
of clones these days have RLL and ESDI type sectors per track in their BIOS
ROMS.

> 
> Other problems
> . documentation is backordered (>6weeks so far)
***** You're right. The Prentice Hall volume sales people are impossible to
deal with.  We reprinted the System Administration Guide and the Sys Adm 
Reference, and they are always in stock, but for the rest of the stuff we
have gotten held up (for up to *7* weeks at a time) from PH.  For Release
3.2 we're reprinting the whole set and keeping a few thousand on hand at 
any given time.

> I would suggest that BTU + X-Windows REQUIRES at least 4 Meg memory.
***** Me too.  It runs like a bat out of h*ll in 4MB, and probably would do 
just fine with 3MB to 3.5MB. There are people who run in 2.5MB and say
they like it just fine, but I don't know how they do it.

> The documentation that comes with X is minimal. It is no way to learn how
> to use X. I ordered the X-windows manuals from O'Reilly & Assoc. These are
> great. Unfortunately, these manuals are for X11, not the X10 you get from BT.
> (BT, if you are listening. I hear you are thinking about shipping X11. If
> this is true, get the O'Reilly manuals and ship them with your system!!)
***** I wouldn't say it is "minimal:" we provide a complete reprint of the 
MIT X Window documentation.  This documentation was not intended to be used
as an X tutorial, although we do provide a very thin tutorial introduction
to X.  The O'Reilly stuff is great and we do refer a lot of people to it.
We won't be shipping it with the 11 distribution because a lot of people
already have it, and we don't want to force anybody to buy it who doesn't
need it.

> 
> We bought the BLIT express card with the system. We needed a display
> system that would display 256 level (64 for now is enough) grey scale.
> The ads for the BLIT card implied that it would do this.
******  Larry, I've just read all of our ads three times and it says nothing
about 256 level grey scale.  In fact, the words "grey scale" don't even 
appear in any of our literature or advertising.  Believe me, given the 
recent net traffic on our ads, we *really* scrutinize everything we publish
for possible misinterpretations.  The ads say the Blit does 1660 x 1200
in monochrome and 640 x 480 x 8 in color.   It really does bring out all 
eight bits from the 82786.  The limitation to 6 bits is an artifact of usinig
Multi Sync monitors, which can only accept two bits per gun.  There are
more expensive monitors and interfaces available which can utilize all 8
bits, which some of our customers are using.  We'd be glad to show you how, 
but I suspect what you want is 1660 x 1200 in 256 levels of grey scale which
we cannot do.  For more than one bit we can only do 640 x 480.  You might
want to consider the new Univision card:  we support the Univision card and 
the Microfield card in our X Window distribution bundled with UNIX System V
Release 3.1.

Despite the comments, thank you for your (mostly) positive review! 

- Dimitri Rotow