Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!oobleck!bender
From: bender@oobleck.Central.Sun.COM (Michael Bender)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel
Subject: Re: INTEL 310
Keywords: intel 310 ipsc
Message-ID: <125349@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 27 Sep 89 07:08:43 GMT
References: <124864@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <806@sdrc.UUCP> <124935@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <818@sdrc.UUCP> <6321@ficc.uu.net> <14739@bfmny0.UU.NET>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: bender@oobleck.UUCP (Michael Bender)
Distribution: na
Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc.
Lines: 53

well, since I started the 310 discussion several weeks ago, I guess
it's time I posted something.  I've been keeping all the responses
concerning the 310 and which newsgroup it belongs in, and the top
two contenders are (no surprise) comp.sys.intel and comp.sys.intel.ipsc310

I'd like to suggest that we move the 310 discussion to ipsc310, assuming
there are not too many complaints from the hypercube people (remember,
the hypercube used 310's).

I'll describe what I do with my 310 and maybe that will get some discussion
going (other than which newsgroups it belongs in).

I've got a 310 with a 286/10 (6 MhZ 80286), 1-1/2 Mb RAM (010CX and 012CX),
544A (4-port serial controller with an 8085 on-board), 186/78A (INTEL's
VDI graphics board, running now with 640 X 480 16 color resolution and
with an iSBX354 dual serial card, one channel for the Honeywell LYNX
trackball and one for the Keytronics VT100-style keyboard), i215G wini
controller with i218 5-1/4" floppy drive (360K and 720K), i217 cart
tape controller with tape drive (for those ever-fun "backups", I had
the look the word up in the dictonary, I don't use it often enough) and
an iSXM552S ethernet controller, which I use to connect up to a
PC-LINK II ethernet card in my PC, so I can use the XENIX system as
a file server for the PC.  I've also managed to collect some assorted
multibus boards (bubble memory, prototyping, etc...) and some bitbus
boards that I've used osver the years on various projects.

I've written several device drivers for XENIX 3.4/3.5.2, most notably
the 186/78A graphics board driver, since INTEL didn't have a version
of the driver that ran on the version of XENIX I was running.  I've also
had the *interesting* experience of using the PROM debugger while XENIX
was temporarily halted (by pressing the green I button) to play around
with device registers and things like that in the course of debugging
drivers.  Symbolic kernal debugger?  Sure, if you consider FE73C9 to
be a symbol.

I've also written and ported a lot of code (the standards like JOVE/EMACS/
(un)compress) and have a really neat piece of software that I wrote
after giving up in frustration trying to get "screen" (PD multi-screen
program) to port, that's a multi-screen window manager.

Please excuse what may sound like bragging, I just want to get some
discussion going with other people that have enriched their gutter
language vocabulary when XENIX crashes or a tty process hangs at 3AM!!

mike

p.s. yes, I also ran MS-DOS 2.1 on the 310 for a while, and contemplated
wiring in a CGA board to one of my empty multibus prototype cards,
but thought better of it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
michael bender - bender@sun                (can't think of a witty thing
 415 336-6353 (w)  415 941-3864 (h)         to put here yet)
------------------------------------------------------------------------