[HECnet] NT 4 on AlphaServer es40

[lee.gleason at comcast.net]

>Speaking of IAS, it really looks cool when reading specs, but I've never 
>touched it, and another aspect of those specs is that it looks like it 
>would be rather slow...


   I managed an IAS system on an 11/70 back in the day. I don't have any formal benchmarks, but it didn't "feel" any slower than equivalent RSX11M and M+ systems I have been on.

   IAS was a real treat. If you  wanted  them, you could SYSGEN in real timesharing features for supporting users who didn't require realtime response to their needs. It included lots of concepts   that later made their way into VMS, (although, considering this  crowd, I don't  know  if that will be considered a plus here...).  

   The most interesting feature for me was the way device drivers worked. Called "handlers", they were complete tasks, instead of the APR and a couple registers' worth of context provided by RSX11M/M+ drivers. You could do a lot more work in them, a lot easier than on the other RSX variants. The down side is that any driver action involved scheduling a task rather than the lightweight context switch required by a driver. But, having said that, the system I managed supported lots and lots of terminals at 9600 baud, and wasn't bogged down by servicing interrupts, so scheduling a task to do IO didn't turn out as bad as you'd think it would.

   I managed RSTS sytstems as well and I vastly preferred the richer environment provide by IAS. I recall being at the DECUS Symposium where the future of IAS was announced (that is, no future...). There was much lamentation, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over that. Support did actually continue for quite a few years after that though - turns out that the US Air Force was a   big IAS user, and DEC didn't want to upset the government.

   BTW, I'm always looking for IAS related "stuff" - copies of the DeVIAS newsletter, IAS software (espcially DECnet-IAS) and the like.

>Never seen TRAX in real life either, btw. What was so good about it?

   Me neither, though I did use some of the VT61 and VT62 terminals that were developed for it - like VT-52s, but with IBM style block mode. Not a lot of software outside of TRAX used their block mode features, so they were pretty rare.




                Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                           || "I'm on a bus
                                                     ||   on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se                   ||   Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                               ||   tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol