Oscar Oberg <Oscar.Oberg@abc.se> wrote:
> Yeah, and all russians speak bad english, all americans are fat, and all
> swedes want to kill themselves. This is called prejudice and is
> generally considered a bad thing. In schools in diabolic countries like
> the U.S. they teach you why. Maybe you should attend one.
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   
   Actually I have been for a year and a half in an American high school
and I'm currently attending an American university. As for Russians
speaking bad English, let me point out that once in high school I have done
best in the whole class on an English grammar test, impressing the teacher
so much that she was bragging for a whole year about a Russian student of
hers who knows English grammar better than her native speakers. At that
time I had been in the USA only for 4 months. In general, all Russians who
work or study in America learn English perfectly in a very short time. As
for Americans being fat, it is a fact that most of them are. I can't
comment on Swedes, though.
   
> You're gonna give shell access to thousands of users on KA410's??
   
   I have more than just KA410s. I have 5 KA42-Bs, which are 4 times faster
than KA410s, and I plan to get a KA655 for my disk/mail server (both KA42-B
and KA655 are 33 MHz CVAXen rated at 3.8 VUPs). I also plan to stuff all of
them with the maximum RAM (64 MHz for KA655 and 32 MHz for KA42). Even on
KA410s I plan to put more RAM (12 MB at least).
   
> 1) You've never used a one
   
   True, but they can't be THAT bad. KA42-Bs are even better.
   
> 2) You've got alot of space to fill
   
   My office is the largest one on our department's floor, but I don't
think that I will need more than 10 machines.
   
> 3) You're drunk (or worse)
   
   Actually I have never drunk a gram of alcohol in my life.
   
> > this is still a dream. Even NetBSD with its very multiplatformist
> > ideology is still far from this. (IIRC, VME has been generalized but
> > all other buses are still tied to CPU architectures.)
>
> How about the SCSI bus?
   
   OK, I have missed that one. I do agree though that it's a bus and that
it's important.
   
> > > controller scsi0 at uba0 csr 0x200c0080 vector szintr
> >
> >    This line supports the first NCR 5380 SCSI controller on KA42/41.
> > Now, this controller is exactly the same hardware-wise as the one on
> > KA410. This means that if DEC enabled this line on KA410 your VS2000
> > would immediately start supporting generic SCSI disks and tapes just
> > like VS3100! Somehow DEC blocks this line on KA410, since it's
> > certainly present in the GENERIC kernel (how would it support KA42/41s
> > otherwise?)
>
> Wasn't the last word from Bertram that they do DMA transfers differently?
> You might've been too high to notice.
   
   Believe me, I'm perfectly aware of the DMA differences. However, I'm
pretty sure that Ultrix uses the same driver for the HDC9224 MFM controller
both for KA410 and for KA42 with a SCSI/MFM mass storage controller
daughterboard, meaning that the DMA differences are handled at a lower
level and the NCR5380 SCSI driver could be shared just as well.
   
> > But DEC didn't do it, instead engaging in _ARTIFICIAL FEATURE
> > BLOCKING_, a kind of high treason and a crime against humanity for
> > which one must be immediately executed.
>
> By the opressive government or your un-opressive revolutionaries?
   
   I guess by the latter, since artificial feature blocking is one of many
evils of the so-called "market economy" which this oppresive government
imposes.
   
> > annoyance. That's why it's so important to create an alternative system
> > ROM for KA410 if it turns out that the TMSCP over SCSI approach is
> > indeed used.
>
> Or you could boot from diskdrive, MFM disk, or network, which would be
> much simpler.
   
   If you were to read the lines immediately above the ones you are
quoting, you would understand that if the TMSCP over SCSI approach is
indeed used the inability to boot from SCSI disks is far from the most
serious problem with KA410's system ROM.
   
   Sincerely,
   Michael Sokolov
   Phone: 440-449-0299
   ARPA Internet SMTP mail: sokolov@alpha.ces.cwru.edu