Advice sought on VAX UNIX Ethernet/TCP-IP

[Steve Barber]

We are going to set up an Ethernet between our two 11/750 VAXen running BSD 4.3
and need advice regarding what equipment to buy to implement this. Our
criterion for purchase are (in descending order of importance)
reliability, support, performance, price, and compatibility with
non-VAX TCP/IP. Who are the best vendors in this field? What kinds of
experiences do you have with them? What kind and amount of system
administration is required? Should I get a "smart" board (on-board protocols)
or a "dumb" board? I have beginnings of answers to these questions,
but I need more input. A summary of information will be posted to
net.lan.

P.S. I have contact info for Interlan, Excelan, CMC, and 3-Com already.
--
Steve Barber Rabbit Software Corp.
...!ihnp4!{cbmvax,cuuxb}!hutch!barber ...!psuvax1!burdvax!hutch!barber
(215) 647-0440 7 Great Valley Parkway East Malvern PA 19355

[William Bogstad]

In article <4...@brl-sem.ARPA> r...@brl-sem.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) writes:
>In article <2...@rabbit1.UUCP>, bar...@rabbit1.UUCP (Steve Barber) writes:
[deleted text]
>Others are
>
>DEUNA (DEC) - fine except you can't use it in the 750's main UNIBUS
>rack as it draws too much power. It is also two HEX modules so it
>takes up a little more space.

Are you sure about this? It does eat alot of current but
a 11/750 can handle it. (If you don't put too much else in there.)
I filled a 11/750 Unibus with a DEUNA, DZ/11, KMC11B, and Versatec
controller and according to my figures it was just under the rated
current. Note: I think the current rating depends on whether you put a
DR11 in the Massbus.

However, I still wouldn't reccomend it.

Bill Bogstad
bog...@hopkins-eecs-bravo.arpa

[System Mangler]

In article <4...@brl-sem.ARPA>, r...@brl-sem.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) writes:
> My personal favorite is the Interlan NI1010A board. Very reliable.
> and small (one hex module).

Ours too. Never any problems, even on the IBM 4341's DACU Unibus.

I could take or leave their transceivers though. Especially the 802.3
variety, which don't work on our Ethernets.

The 3com board draws less power (only 4 amps), but its overhead is a
lot higher. They're finicky about what transceivers they connect to.
Not recommended.

Don Speck sp...@vlsi.caltech.edu seismo!cit-vax!speck

[Charlie C. Kim]

In article <4...@brl-sem.ARPA> r...@brl-sem.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>)
writes:

>In article <2...@rabbit1.UUCP>, bar...@rabbit1.UUCP (Steve Barber) writes:

>> We are going to set up an Ethernet between our two 11/750 VAXen
>> running BSD 4.3
>

>....
>The only option is to decide which Ethernet interface to use.
> ...

>
>DEUNA (DEC) - fine except you can't use it in the 750's main UNIBUS
>rack as it draws too much power. It is also two HEX modules so it
>takes up a little more space.

> ....

The interface of choice from Digital at the present time for Unibus
machines is the DELUA. The DELUA has far lower power requirements
than the DEUNA and only occupies a single hex slot. In addition, it
has far greater performance than the DEUNA. It is theoretically
software compatible with the DEUNA. (Should run under 4.3 with the
deuna driver - can't speak from experience since our only DELUA based
machine is running Ultrix 1.2). For more info, contact your local
Digital Sales Rep.

Charlie C. Kim
User Services Group
Columbia University

[ro...@sbcs.uucp]

Although this doesn't constitute a rigorous proof, we have run DEUNAs
in our 750's for a couple of years now without problem. Don't have the
numbers at hand, but back when we were forced into DEUNA's, I remember
we had power to spare on our typical 750 w/o MassBus configuration:
DEUNA, UDA-50, Able DH-11, 4 Meg NSC mem, FP processor.

The real reason not to buy DEUNAs is their lack of performance, though!
The best I could get out of one using a custom driver we wrote locally
was about 160 kBytes/sec. Surely Excelan, Interlan or one of the others
can do better than this..

Rick Spanbauer

[Phil Ngai]

In article <4...@brl-sem.ARPA> r...@brl-sem.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) writes:

>In article <49...@brl-smoke.ARPA>, bog...@brl-smoke.ARPA (William Bogstad ) writes:
>> Are you sure about this? It does eat alot of current but
>> a 11/750 can handle it. (If you don't put too much else in there.)
>

>The surge from first energizing the transceiver on some systems will cause
>enough drain to cause a DCLO indication causing the CPU to trap.

The DEC H4000 transceiver is documented to draw over 20 amps when
first starting up. That's amps, not milliamps. What's worse is that
this is from the +12V supply which doesn't have nearly as much
capacity as the +5V supply.

I just started using the Cabletron transceiver (well, actually, it's a
MAU) with LANView and am very happy with it.
--
The VT220 keyboard is an <iS<o standard. That means the French can
hate it as well as the Americans.

<phil <ngai +1 408 749 5720
<u<uC<p: <[ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra<]!amdcad!phil
AR<pA<; amdcad!ph...@decwrl.dec.com