UNIX* on IBM machines running VM

[Herb Chong [DCS]]

In article <759 at utcs.UUCP> ian at utcs.UUCP (Ian F. Darwin) writes:
>A more interesting comparison would be between the Amdahl/AT&T
>port and the IBM port, `IX-370'. Among the salient differences,
>the Amdahl one supports IBM 3270 terminals, while the IBM one
>does not! However, the Amdahl one is not supported on IBM 3705
>front-end processors, since Amdahl doesn't own one to test it on.

Amdahl's support uses a re-microcoded 4705 communications controller,
which they make as a less expensive version of IBM's 3705.  according
to one site that uses one to run UTS, they're not happy with the
reliability of the box.  on the other hand, i know of another site
using it in plain 3705 emulation mode and they think it's just fine.

IBM's IX/370 uses series/1 mini's to handle the ascii communications
and do the neccesary full duplex to half duplex contortions to
communicate with a regular IBM channel.  the main editor is not vi,
it's ined, something that interactive systems corp. wrote which makes
less i/o demands upon the mainframe system and is supposedly a
windowing editor like emacs.  writing and handling channel programs for
byte i/o kills the system.

>Anybody have a full, reasonably unbiased comparison between
>the two commercially-available ports (there are others, such
>as one done for a heavily-modified TSS, that are not really
>available outside certain parts of AT&T)?

i have been speaking to people running UTS and they are generally quite
happy with it.  it satisfies the need of people who demand unix without
requiring the purchase and maintainance of a new computer system.  most
of the people i talk to run perhaps 30 users on UTS while
simultaneously supporting about 300 users on CMS.  IX/370, to my
knowledge, has not been shipped yet, though the first customers may be
receiving theirs now.

Herb Chong...

I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble....

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