Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!venera.isi.edu!rod
From: rod@venera.isi.edu (Rodney Doyle Van Meter III)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: *big iron*
Message-ID: <9911@venera.isi.edu>
Date: 27 Sep 89 21:35:22 GMT
References: <22488@cup.portal.com> <280001@hpdml93.HP.COM>
Reply-To: rod@venera.isi.edu.UUCP (Rodney Doyle Van Meter III)
Organization: Information Sciences Institute, Univ. of So. California
Lines: 14


Someone mentioned the Crays as examples of hot I/O boxes.

A friend of mine who knows these things much better than me called the
Cray peripherals "incestuous". Sure they work, but they apparently
rely on a nearly intimate knowledge of the timing quirks of the
processors and other peripherals. Makes them expensive, and makes it
hard to use off-the-shelf parts.

What about Thinking Machines' Data Vault? I've been given to
understand it's actually better than the machines themselves in some
respects.

		--Rod