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- Newsgroups: comp.arch
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!dxcern!dscomsa!zeus02.desy.de!hallam
- From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker)
- Subject: Re: Def of a workstation (a lark)
- Message-ID: <C0o5Jq.3nM@dscomsa.desy.de>
- Sender: usenet@dscomsa.desy.de (usenet)
- Reply-To: Hallam@zeus02.desy.de
- Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA
- References: <1993Jan3.052930.27869@wam.umd.edu> <1993Jan3.235327.13718@qb.rhein-main.de>
- Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 02:57:25 GMT
- Lines: 48
-
- In article <1993Jan3.235327.13718@qb.rhein-main.de>, vhs@rhein-main.de (Volker
- Herminghaus-Shirai) writes:
-
- |>A decent workstation has IMHO *at least* the following items of which the
- |>software can and does take advantage of:
- |> a high-resolution screen
- |> a pointing device
- |> an ethernet connection (or token ring if your management was bribed ;-)
- |> a UN*X operating system with TCP/IP support and a C compiler
- |> a boot prom that allows for interactive diagnosis etc.
- |> a decent amount of RAM and hard disk space
- |> a tape drive for backups and data exchange as opposed to floppy disk
- |> other items I may have forgotten (it's already tomorrow...;-)
-
- Oh so my Alpha 3000/500 isn't a workstation becaus I run VMS? Well well...
-
- By any resonable definition the old VAX-2000 was a workstation, mouse, high res
- screen, windows. Only too damn slow to do anything sensible on.
-
- They were great for about 6 months after they came out. Then people started
- hammering them as the windows stuff allowed you to do more with the machine. I
- wouldn;t thank someone for giving me a 2000 to use as a workstation today.
-
- So far I haven't felt the lack of a tape drive. I have a CD ROM but no tape,
- just the net.
-
-
- IMHO a workstation should have the following:-
-
- High Res Screen + Mouse (Pref Sony Trinitron...)
- FDDI
- Secure Multiprocessing O/S with threads.
- Lots of RAM, lots of disk avaliable.
- Full Online Documentation
-
-
- For home use I fail to see the need for multiuser. For use at work I would
- want:-
-
- FDDI and Ethernet
- Multiuser
-
- Either way I would want POSIX to be avaliable.
-
-
- --
-
- Phill Hallam-Baker
-