New POWER toys

[Doc Shipley]

William Donzelli wrote:
> 
> Are we talking about the same cards? The ones I am referring to are known
> as "F960", "H960", "E386" and so forth. The first letter refers to the
> interface (FDDI, HSSI, Ethernet, and so forth) and the number indicates
> the processor. A stripped down AIX ran on these cards (yes, AIX on a
> 80386 - deal with it) to perform the routing. The host RS/6000 basically
> just did housekeeping.
> 
> The FDDI and HSSI cards (I don't think) ever became a real product, with
> less than 300 or so made. The V.35 and Ethernet cards did, and pop up from
> time to time (they were used in a specially badged RS/6000-320 called a
> <mumble> Network Processor).

   Some of those V.35 cards were in service as recently as 2 years go in 
Austin, running in a set of 7012-39x systems.  For all I know they still 
are - they were doing the job they were installed to do and the company 
hadn't found a great replacement, so they may be running them still.

   We're not talking some mom & pop ISP operation, either.  This was in 
a major backbone provider's NOC.


	Doc