Vax 6320 on Ebay

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "Sridhar" == Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com> writes:

 Sridhar> Paul Koning wrote:
 Jan-Benedict> ...One board (in the XMI cage) was a T2027, which is a
 Jan-Benedict> XMI-to-FDDI board. Nice :)
 >> >> Ha, I had forgotten that ever shipped.  I suspect that's not a
 >> >> common board at all.  Of course, finding anything to plug it
 >> into >> isn't easy anymore...
 >> 
 9000> Aren't there some FDDI-SCSI converters? I bought one from ebay
 9000> (HSD 5 or 10?)
 >> FDDI to SCSI?  Not 100% impossible but it seems unlikely.  FDDI is
 >> a network interface, similar to 100BaseT (but much more complex
 >> for no benefit).

 Sridhar> No benefit?  I get much better transfer rates through
 Sridhar> regular FDDI than I do through *switched* 100Mbps ethernet.
 Sridhar> I have a DEC GIGAswitch, and let me tell you that switched
 Sridhar> FDDI is *extremely* fast.

FDDI and 100BaseT are the same speed given equally competent
implementations. 

 Sridhar> That's not even talking about fault-tolerance.

Ethernet and FDDI both offer fault tolerance.  They do it in different
ways, but they both can do it.

Having spent several years in the FDDI ANSI committee, I know all the
"why FDDI is better" FUD.  It doesn't hold water.  And it certainly
doesn't justify the absolutely mindboggling complexity of FDDI
compared to Ethernet.

 >> You can run IP over it, of course.  And then you could run iSCSI,
 >> if you don't mind the slow performance.  But FDDI was obsolete
 >> long before iSCSI came out. So an FDDI to SCSI converter would
 >> have to be a proprietary hack.

 Sridhar> Obselete?  It's still very much used in places where fault
 Sridhar> tolerance is important.

You're thinking about the U.S. Navy?  I heard from them a few years
ago when they realized that FDDI was dead, dead, dead, and they had to
look for alternatives, because new FDDI hardware could no longer be
obtained anywhere.

	   paul