[rescue] San Antonio, TX area rescue

[Lionel Peterson]

--- Joshua D Boyd <jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu> wrote:

> >   Let's put it this way...the disk CONTROLLER has 1GB of RAM and is
> > the  size of a refrigerator.  Make no mistake...this is a
mainframe,
> > through and through.
> 
> Gig of ram, I'm not surprised at.  Size of a fridge seems a bit odd.
> Obviously, a disk controller for this isn't going to be the size of a
> PCI card or anything, but a lunch box or moderate sized Sun (say U80)
> sized controller seems more reasonable for a 1999 vintage machine. 
> How in the world do they reasonably fill a fridge?

All those WIRES! (sorry Dave, couldn't resist!)

Seriously, a mainframe controller is not like a PC/workstation
controller - it handles *MASSIVE* amounts of data quickly - keeping a
mainframe fed and happy is not a trivial thing...

These controllers attach directly to the CPU, and as such, need to be
as fast as the CPU...

(I'm sure Dave has a better explaination in an email I haven't gotten
to yet...)


=====
Lionel

"Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten
programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software"
Bill Gates, in "An OpenLetter to Hobbyists" dated February 3, 1976
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