Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca!system
From: system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (System Admin (Mike Peterson))
Subject: Re: HP Hype (new role for ADUS)
Message-ID: <1991May1.164907.9247@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>
Organization: University of Toronto Chemistry Department
References: <1991Apr28.061037.8050@midway.uchicago.edu> <42148@netnews.upenn.edu> <59723@siemens.siemens.com>
Date: Wed, 1 May 1991 16:49:07 GMT

In article <59723@siemens.siemens.com> schuh@demon.siemens.com (Christian Schuh) writes:
>Well, my definition of "rapid" changed last Friday, when the HPollo sales guy
>told me, that our $100000 (just hw) investment in our DN10020 became obsolete 
>in less than two years! That's rapid, indeed! Simple economics, eh? 

The DN10000 became obsolete the day HP took over Apollo - there is/was no
way that HP was going to support 3 incompatible architectures (m68k,
a88k and PA), and pure numbers of systems tells you who was going to
lose (besides, HP already had m68k systems so those wouldn't go away).

We too have blown over $100K on our DN10000, which still doesn't work
properly after 2.5 years, but are thanking <insert favourite deity here>
that we didn't get the 40/80 plane visualization system for it
(which seems completely unsupported from past comments in this
newsgroup), and didn't sign up for the PRISM II upgrade (I have great
sympathy for those who did and are now shafted).

I gather that you can get $4500 (US) for your DN10000 if you buy a 7x0;
our network is Ethernet so the 7x0 would at least be able to
NFS files from our other HPollos (except for 'root' of course :-( ).
We may use this option, since that is the most you're going to get for
a DN10000. Our DN10000 gateways our Token Ring, but the DN580s on it
haven' t been useable since SR10.2 broke 'vi' in DM pads, so they're no loss.

One major factor is that with the apparent low level of concern by HP for
Apollo users, we might be much better off using SGI/IBM/Sun workstations.
Many of our serious number-crunching users have already abandoned Apollo
in general and the DN10000 in particular due to the ridiculous list of
outstanding problems and the high cost of buying/upgrading/maintaining
the system (it looks like upgrading isn't an option any more).

Mike.
-- 
Mike Peterson, System Administrator, U/Toronto Department of Chemistry
E-mail: system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca
Tel: (416) 978-7094                  Fax: (416) 978-8775
