First of all, let me correct a typo. In my previous message I wrote:
> 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).
   
   Of course I have meant "MB".
   
   Oscar Oberg <Oscar.Oberg@abc.se> wrote:
> I'm not surprised to see that you missunderstood me completely. All of my
> statements above are examples of prejudice.
   
   Believe me, I perfectly understood this when I was writing my comments.
Your statements, even though they were examples of prejudice, were still
interesting to comment on.
   
> You're not gonna be competing with Pentiums speed-wise on a KA410.
   
   Again, my resources are much greater than a single KA410. I have a whole
bunch of VAXen, and among them there 5 KA42-Bs. In addition, all will be
stuffed with the maximum RAM. Note that 64 MB on the disk/mail server
matches what all SPARCs around our campus have. As for Pentiums, from
perhaps 60 machines that the enemy (INS) has only two Pentiums actually
serve the users. 5 KA42-Bs should match that.
   
> > > 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.
>
> Execution is not oppressive?
   
   Executing those who deserve it is fully justified and proper.
   
> > > 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.
>
> What is the most serious problem? What effect does it have on booting
> from diskdrive, MFM disk, or network?
   
   Here is the relevant paragraph from my last posting on the subject (the
   
> The second consequence, a much more important one, would be that TMSCP
> over SCSI and CCS would probably be mutually exclusive. Think about it,
> some packets are being sent over the SCSI bus, but different devices
> don't agree on their meaning! KA410 system ROM, VMS, Ultrix, and TK50Z
> would interpret them as TMSCP packets, while NetBSD and standard SCSI
> devices would interpret them as CCS commands! I don't know the format of
> TMSCP packets, but it may be that a sequence of bytes that means
> something like "get status" in TMSCP will mean "reformat disk" in CCS!
> This, in turn, means that even if you connect only standard SCSI devices
> to the SCSI bus, run only NetBSD, run VMS or Ultrix, and boot only from
                                   ^
> MFM disks or over the net, the TMSCP over SCSI design of the system ROM
> will still cause you grief. Each time you turn on the machine the system
> ROM will probe for TK50Z in a TMSCP over SCSI manner, messing up all
> standard SCSI devices (all because there probably isn't a concept of SCSI
> ID in TMSCP over SCSI). Depending on how lucky you are, your OS may
> restore the devices back to normal once booted, but this intrusive probe
> may still be a major 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.
   
   First of all let me correct a bad typo in there. They should be the word
"never" where the caret points. I apologize for this bad typo that changes
the meaning to the opposite. Apart from that, the above paragraph should
tell you what the problems are. It may be more understandable, though, if
you read the whole section on TMSCP over SCSI in that posting.
   
   Sincerely,
   Michael Sokolov
   Phone: 440-449-0299
   ARPA Internet SMTP mail: sokolov@alpha.ces.cwru.edu