1 INFO-VAX	Sat, 11 Nov 2006	Volume 2006 : Issue 621       Contents:* Re: DECWindows: Support for pseudo color ?$ DELL vs HP support: offshoring story( Re: DELL vs HP support: offshoring storyP Re: Itanium console:bypass its interpretation of certain control characters char MaxCIM support Re: Most "classic" VMS version Re: Novice's questions Re: Novice's questions Re: Novice's questions Re: Novice's questions Re: Novice's questions Re: OT: Hacking Democracy 7 Re: Performance comparison Alpha ES40 vs Itanium rx3600 7 Re: Performance comparison Alpha ES40 vs Itanium rx3600 7 Re: Performance comparison Alpha ES40 vs Itanium rx3600 7 Re: Performance comparison Alpha ES40 vs Itanium rx3600 A Re: Recommendations for a Windows client for accessing Decwindows 6 Re: writing fixed size records with one shorter record  F ----------------------------------------------------------------------    Date: 11 Nov 2006 13:19:57 +0100R From: pmoreau@ath.cena.fr (Patrick MOREAU, DTI Athis ex CENA, Tel: 01.69.57.68.40)3 Subject: Re: DECWindows: Support for pseudo color ? ! Message-ID: <$MeU+TyGGw9y@sinead>   h In article <204fa$4555970b$cef8887a$19249@TEKSAVVY.COM>, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@teksavvy.com> writes:N >  From what I have read, the Radeon 7500 card, which came highly recommended M > in this newsgroup, can only handle one visual type on a display. So if you  Q > are at 24 bit TrueColor, you cannot run any apps that are in 8 bit PseudoColor.  > E > So if you want to run modern applications, you can't run many core  D > mission/critical VMS applications such as DECW$PAINT or FLIGHT 3.1 >  >   2 You can use Xpaint instead of the old DECW$PAINT.   N For FLIGHT, the only solution is actually to restart the DECW server in 8 bitsM mode (I have three versions of DECW$DEVICE_CONFIG_GZ.COM; one for 8 bits, one ; for 16 bits (the one I generally use) and one for 24 bits).    Patrick  --O =============================================================================== N pmoreau@ath.cena.fr              ______      ___   _          (Patrick MOREAU)4 DSNA/DTI/SDER (ex CENA)         / /   /     / /|  /|J Athis-Mons France              / /___/     / / | / |   __   __   __   __  N BP 205                        / /         / /  |/  |  |  | |__| |__  |__| |  |N 94542 ORLY AEROGARE CEDEX    / /   ::    / /       |  |__| | \  |__  |  | |__|N http://www.ath.cena.fr/~pmoreau/              http://membres.lycos.fr/pmoreau/O ===============================================================================    ------------------------------  % Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 03:51:24 -0500 - From: JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@teksavvy.com> - Subject: DELL vs HP support: offshoring story 8 Message-ID: <2a0fd$45558f0b$cef8887a$14549@TEKSAVVY.COM>   from http:://www.angustel.ca  K   DELL TO DOUBLE OTTAWA CALL CENTRE: Dell Inc. says that over the next few  F years it will "nearly double" the size of its Ottawa Customer Contact D Centre, which supports customers in the U.S. and Canada. The Centre E currently employs about 1,200 people; a new three-storey facility is  + scheduled for completion in September 2007.     I It would be ironic if Dell were to move into the old DEC/Compaq facility  I that handled customer support calls at the same time as HP is moving its   folks out to India.    ------------------------------  # Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 16:45:16 GMT + From: "Villy Madsen" <Villy.Madsen@shaw.ca> 1 Subject: Re: DELL vs HP support: offshoring story / Message-ID: <w6n5h.290381$1T2.193520@pd7urf2no>   M Dell has a call centre here in Edmonton as well...   I'm not sure how big it  K is and I'm not sure how many people are working there.  I think that I can  M safely state that they are almost always looking for people - but then so is    everyone else in this burg now..   Villy     ; "JF Mezei" <jfmezei.spamnot@teksavvy.com> wrote in message  2 news:2a0fd$45558f0b$cef8887a$14549@TEKSAVVY.COM... > from http:://www.angustel.ca > L >  DELL TO DOUBLE OTTAWA CALL CENTRE: Dell Inc. says that over the next few H > years it will "nearly double" the size of its Ottawa Customer Contact F > Centre, which supports customers in the U.S. and Canada. The Centre G > currently employs about 1,200 people; a new three-storey facility is  - > scheduled for completion in September 2007.  >  > K > It would be ironic if Dell were to move into the old DEC/Compaq facility  K > that handled customer support calls at the same time as HP is moving its   > folks out to India.    ------------------------------  % Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 12:07:00 -0500 8 From: Stephen Hoffman <Hoff@HoffmanLabs-RemoveThis-.Org>Y Subject: Re: Itanium console:bypass its interpretation of certain control characters char ) Message-ID: <ej4vvl$2218$1@pyrite.mv.net>    david20@alpha2.mdx.ac.uk wrote: U > In article <00A5E854.06A9859F@SendSpamHere.ORG>, VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG writes: L >> I have an application that I started on the Itanium after I logged in viaL >> the console.  I need to type a control-B to get its attention but this isL >> the sequence used by the management processor to get one to its menu.  IsK >> there something in the console menu I can set to change the default to a @ >> different sequence so that I can get out of this application? >> > > > Isn't control-B in VMS (at DCL level) the same as up-arrow ?K > If the management processor is intercepting control-B won't that make the / > console port pretty much unusable under VMS ?   G    Console serial ports have always been somewhat problematic; they've  F never been particularly good choices for general interactive use, nor  for use with serial printers.   F    This case is reminiscent to the emacs user bringing an OpenVMS VAX B box to a grinding halt with a ^P.  Another classic variation here E involved folks that used asynch DECnet on the console serial line --  F sooner or later, the "wrong" character sequence would wander past the % console, and bad things would happen.   F    If you use the command-line control character editing, yes, you'll ; want to avoid the ^B.  Use of the up-arrow will avoid this.   D    This could easily be interpreted as a (new) bunch of engineering H folks re-learning what is an old console limitation/restriction, yes -- H but then, in-band signaling isn't an easy problem, either.  Ping the HP D hardware support folks if you want to discuss this, or request that G there be other options made available for gaining the attention of the  
 Integrity MP.    ------------------------------  % Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 05:01:06 -0600 ! From: John <norad869@comcast.net>  Subject: MaxCIM support * Message-ID: <4555AD72.8090500@comcast.net>  G Does anyone know if there is a MaxCIM support/maintenance organization  
 out there?   ------------------------------    Date: 11 Nov 2006 02:29:05 -0800# From: "H Vlems" <hvlems@freenet.de> ' Subject: Re: Most "classic" VMS version C Message-ID: <1163240945.124319.159420@h54g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>   " madcrow.maxwell@gmail.com schreef:  D > I've recently come across a treasure trove of classic VMS releasesH > online. I'd LOVE to be able to try this out in SIMH (I have a hobbyistI > license, so this is all legal). I am wondering what version of VMS best H > represents it's "classic" form so that I know what the best version toH > get is. Also, does anybody know where I can find an installation guide3 > so that I can actually get it all up and running?   2 There's one VAX/VMS version I'd like to add: V3.7.C VMS 6.1 because it was the first "parity" release (I still have the  dual CD box)   ------------------------------    Date: 10 Nov 2006 23:40:28 -0800 From: "MZN" <MikeZmn@gmail.com>  Subject: Re: Novice's questions C Message-ID: <1163230828.151103.147750@k70g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>    """Stephen Hoffman (): """   I >    If this is the typical hobbyist license, extract the contents of the F > two mail messages into files with names such as PAKS_OPENVMS.COM andJ > PAKS_PRODUCTS.COM, editing off any headers and any footers that the mailG > system may have added, and then log in as SYSTEM on the OPA0: console 2 > device and issue two @ commands at the $ prompt: >  >    $ @PAKS_OPENVMS.COM >    $ @PAKS_PRODUCTS.COM  > J >    Since you may or may not have a way to load the files, you may end upF > entering the OpenVMS base and user licenses by hand, and the networkD > license by hand (most folks usually pick IP for this task, and theH > license PAK name for that is UCX), and then configure and start the IPF > network and then copy over the rest of the licenses via FTP or such. >   A I'll try, but it looks difficult for me (remember, please, that I F worked in not completely installed OpenVMS no more than 2 hours, and IE write this from Windows machine). May be possible to put theese files C on floppy or CD and to do above mentioned commands by corresponding  manner?    ------------------------------  % Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 03:04:00 -0500 . From: "Carl Friedberg" <frida.fried@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Novice's questions I Message-ID: <890539d90611110004y3467693eh598c47239c93a5f1@mail.gmail.com>   L TWlrZSwKCk9uIDEwIE5vdiAyMDA2IDIzOjQwOjI4IC0wODAwLCBNWk4gPE1pa2VabW5AZ21haWwuL Y29tPiB3cm90ZToKPgo+ICIiIlN0ZXBoZW4gSG9mZm1hbiDQydPBzCjBKToKPiAiIiIKPgo+ID4gL ICAgSWYgdGhpcyBpcyB0aGUgdHlwaWNhbCBob2JieWlzdCBsaWNlbnNlLCBleHRyYWN0IHRoZSBjL b250ZW50cyBvZiB0aGUKPiA+IHR3byBtYWlsIG1lc3NhZ2VzIGludG8gZmlsZXMgd2l0aCBuYW1lL cyBzdWNoIGFzIFBBS1NfT1BFTlZNUy5DT00gYW5kCj4gPiBQQUtTX1BST0RVQ1RTLkNPTSwgZWRpL dGluZyBvZmYgYW55IGhlYWRlcnMgYW5kIGFueSBmb290ZXJzIHRoYXQgdGhlIG1haWwKPiA+IHN5L c3RlbSBtYXkgaGF2ZSBhZGRlZCwgYW5kIHRoZW4gbG9nIGluIGFzIFNZU1RFTSBvbiB0aGUgT1BBL MDogY29uc29sZQo+ID4gZGV2aWNlIGFuZCBpc3N1ZSB0d28gQCBjb21tYW5kcyBhdCB0aGUgJCBwL cm9tcHQ6Cj4gPgo+ID4gICAgJCBAUEFLU19PUEVOVk1TLkNPTQo+ID4gICAgJCBAUEFLU19QUk9EL VUNUUy5DT00KPiA+Cj4gPiAgICBTaW5jZSB5b3UgbWF5IG9yIG1heSBub3QgaGF2ZSBhIHdheSB0L byBsb2FkIHRoZSBmaWxlcywgeW91IG1heSBlbmQgdXAKPiA+IGVudGVyaW5nIHRoZSBPcGVuVk1TL IGJhc2UgYW5kIHVzZXIgbGljZW5zZXMgYnkgaGFuZCwgYW5kIHRoZSBuZXR3b3JrCj4gPiBsaWNlL bnNlIGJ5IGhhbmQgKG1vc3QgZm9sa3MgdXN1YWxseSBwaWNrIElQIGZvciB0aGlzIHRhc2ssIGFuL ZCB0aGUKPiA+IGxpY2Vuc2UgUEFLIG5hbWUgZm9yIHRoYXQgaXMgVUNYKSwgYW5kIHRoZW4gY29uL ZmlndXJlIGFuZCBzdGFydCB0aGUgSVAKPiA+IG5ldHdvcmsgYW5kIHRoZW4gY29weSBvdmVyIHRoL ZSByZXN0IG9mIHRoZSBsaWNlbnNlcyB2aWEgRlRQIG9yIHN1Y2guCj4gPgo+Cj4gSSdsbCB0cnksL IGJ1dCBpdCBsb29rcyBkaWZmaWN1bHQgZm9yIG1lIChyZW1lbWJlciwgcGxlYXNlLCB0aGF0IEkKL PiB3b3JrZWQgaW4gbm90IGNvbXBsZXRlbHkgaW5zdGFsbGVkIE9wZW5WTVMgbm8gbW9yZSB0aGFuL IDIgaG91cnMsIGFuZCBJCj4gd3JpdGUgdGhpcyBmcm9tIFdpbmRvd3MgbWFjaGluZSkuIE1heSBiL ZSBwb3NzaWJsZSB0byBwdXQgdGhlZXNlIGZpbGVzCj4gb24gZmxvcHB5IG9yIENEIGFuZCB0byBkL byBhYm92ZSBtZW50aW9uZWQgY29tbWFuZHMgYnkgY29ycmVzcG9uZGluZwo+IG1hbm5lcj8KPgo+L CkkndmUgdXNlZCB0aGUgQ0QgdGVjaG5pcXVlIHdpdGggc3VjY2Vzcy4gQWZ0ZXIgeW91IGhhdmUgL Y29tcGxldGVkIHRoZSBWTVMKaW5zdGFsbGF0aW9uIGFuZCByZWJvb3QgVk1TLCB5b3UgY2FuIGFjL Y2VzcyB0aGUgY2Ryb20KCiAgJCBNT1VOVC9PVkVSUklERT1JRCBEUUEwOgoKb3Igd2hhdGV2ZXIgL dGhlIGNkcm9tIGRldmljZSBpcyBjYWxsZWQ7CgppZiB5b3UgZGlkbid0IGNyZWF0ZSBhIGZvbGRlL ciB3aGVuIHlvdSBnZW5lcmF0ZWQgdGhlIGNkcm9tIG9uIHdpbmRvd3MsIHlvdQp3aWxsIGZpbmQgL dGhlIGZpbGVzIGluIHRoZSBkaXJlY3RvcnkgY2FsbGVkIFswMDAwMDBdLCBlLmcuCiQgRElSRUNUL T1JZIERRQTA6WzAwMDAwMF0KCnNob3VsZCBzaG93IHlvdSB0aG9zZSB0d28gY29tbWFuZCBmaWxlL cy4gSWYgeW91IG5hbWVkIHRoZW0gYXMgSG9mZgpzdWdnZXN0ZWQsIHlvdSBpbnN0YWxsIChhc3N1L bWluZyB5b3UgYXJlIHJ1bm5pbmcgZnJvbSBTWVNURU0pOgoKJCBARFFBMDpbMDAwMDAwXVBBS1NfL T1BFTlZNUy5DT00KJCBARFFBMDpbMDAwMDAwXVBBS1NfUFJPRFVDVFMuQ09NCgpDYXJsIEZyaWVk YmVyZwo=   ------------------------------    Date: 11 Nov 2006 04:04:09 -0800 From: "MZN" <MikeZmn@gmail.com>  Subject: Re: Novice's questions C Message-ID: <1163246649.496929.241880@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>   E I downloaded OpenVMS 8.3. It contains file ALPHA83.BCK. What I can to - do with it in order to burn it under Windows?    ------------------------------  % Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:52:25 -0500 8 From: Stephen Hoffman <Hoff@HoffmanLabs-RemoveThis-.Org> Subject: Re: Novice's questions ) Message-ID: <ej4v49$21mk$1@pyrite.mv.net>   
 MZN wrote:  C > I'll try, but it looks difficult for me (remember, please, that I H > worked in not completely installed OpenVMS no more than 2 hours, and IG > write this from Windows machine). May be possible to put theese files E > on floppy or CD and to do above mentioned commands by corresponding 	 > manner?   H    I've been in this exact situation myself, and (without intending any H rudeness) it tends to take longer to discuss this than it's taken me or H other folks around to key in the two or three core licenses into a text F editor, and to register them.  There are other approaches, certainly. E The downside is that you have to troubleshoot those, and you have to  E have the tools and/or hardware necessary for the transfers.  (If you   have such, however...)  @    If a reliable transfer itself was easily feasible and widely F available, I would hope that I or others would have suggested it.  (I @ should add this sequence to the OpenVMS FAQ, as this does arise I regularly -- and with a FAQ entry, a new system manager can consider the   options and alternatives.)  I    There isn't a supported native tool for FAT built into OpenVMS, and I  G don't know that the unsupported approach will work reliably.  (And the  I unsupported-by-HP approach isn't latent in OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS I64  F until V8.*.  It's not on OpenVMS VAX.  There are FAT tools around for D all three architectures, but the downside is getting one loaded and H ready before you can load the licenses -- it's a bootstrap-like process  here.)  H    If you go the CD route to transfer through an ISO-9660 volume -- and F you must very specifically avoid any and all ISO-9660 extensions when F you record the disk, and not all CD recording tools on Windows can do B this -- and then this all may end up also dealing with file-level B differences, as the sequential formats differ at the binary-level I encoding among systems.  Certainly feasible, but -- even on a bad day --  A I can key in the core licenses faster than I can get a Microsoft  K Windows, Mac OS X or OpenVMS-based CD disk burn staged and transfered over.   F    You could also bring up a DB9-based serial connection via a serial C console and a client terminal emulator, and cut-and-paste the core  G licenses (or all of the license PAKs, if you trust the flow control to  > work), and then load and start up the results of the transfer.  >    An InfoServer DAD device, if you have one of those around. J Host-based on V8.2 and later, or a real InfoServer if you have one around.  F    If you have another OpenVMS system, then cross-cabling or swapping H removable storage -- zip or magnetic disks or otherwise, or creating an H LD partition and recording native-format media -- isn't a big deal.  Or I you could potentially boot the node as a satellite, after having created  F the root and pre-loaded the license files onto the satellite's system B disk.  Adding a satellite is something that an experienced system G manager can generally do without thinking, but it's somewhat harder to  C explain in detail in a newsgroup reply.  (Those cluster-management  @ materials are available at <http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/faq/>.)  F    There's another potential discussion here for hobbyists and for an A emulator such as SIMH, and it might be entertaining to provide a  B device-level "client" that presents the licenses for an emulator. G Either via a DAD device and an InfoServer, or via a complete synthesis  F -- maybe a cardreader-like device, as that would avoid having to deal E with the disk volume structure differences and would use an existing  F driver.  But that's some work for an occasional operation, and likely E won't happen within your timeframe.  (Been meaning to take a look at  F SIMH, and if Mr Madsen wanders past, this cardreader device emulation ' addition could certainly be discussed.)   @    Yes, there are various options here...  Entering a couple of F checksums into a file isn't a big deal, I would think.  (If you want, G there's a VMSLICENSE tool which can handle the syntax -- but since you  H have the full DCL commands, transcribing those isn't usually an issue.) F   For OpenVMS VAX systems, the VAX-VMS and UCX license PAKs should be L enough to get you going, and for a network transfer of the rest of the PAKs.   ------------------------------  % Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 12:24:30 -0500 8 From: Stephen Hoffman <Hoff@HoffmanLabs-RemoveThis-.Org> Subject: Re: Novice's questions ) Message-ID: <ej510e$22c3$1@pyrite.mv.net>   D    On looking back through the whole thread, I see that you have an D AlphaStation XP1000 box here and not a SIMH VAX emulation.  My bad. ! (Remembering the wrong thread...)     
 MZN wrote:G > I downloaded OpenVMS 8.3. It contains file ALPHA83.BCK. What I can to / > do with it in order to burn it under Windows?   I    There isn't a Windows tool chain for this, so you'll have to dig up a  H Microsoft Windows version of BACKUP.  (Check the FAQ, and run a few web 
 searches.)  E    As for this case, I'd get a CD distro for US$30 from the hobbyist  I site (including international shipping), and start there.  Once you have  G that, you can use the documented procedures for getting going, and for  A loading in this ALPHA83.BCK BACKUP saveset.  (This is probably a  G BACKUP/IMAGE of an distribution kit, and a version of the BACKUP image  F isn't part of Windows.  There are Windows ports of BACKUP around, but . you'll have to dig one up and get it to work.)  G    Load the distro CD, BOOT it per the directions, and off you go.  If  I you are doing a fresh install here and have a spare disk, you can either  F load this disk into an LD partition and burn it to a CD (and boot and H install that), or you can restore it onto a scratch disk and boot that. G   Or find somebody around that can restore the BACKUP saveset, and can  B either burn a disk for you or loan you a disk containing the bits.   ------------------------------   Date: 4 Nov 2006 18:24:42 -0800 ) From: "Bob Gezelter" <gezelter@rlgsc.com> " Subject: Re: OT: Hacking DemocracyB Message-ID: <1162693482.135634.172610@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com>   Neil Rieck wrote:  > Team,  > N > I just saw a shocking video last night on HBO titled "Hacking Democracy". IfK > this program is only 10% accurate we are all screwed. Check the following  > link for more information: > 3 > http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy  >  > Neil Rieck > Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge,  > Ontario, Canada.# > http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/    Neil,   D Actually, if you want to read more on the subject, I suggest Rebecca? Mercuri's www site, http://www.notablesoftware.com.  I remember C speaking with Rebecca as we were both leaving the 5th International F Virus and Security Conference in the early 1990's, and she was workingF on questions surrounding electronic voting then. I believe that a copyB of that paper is on her www site, in addition to many others since then.   $ - Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com   ------------------------------  % Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 02:54:44 -0500 . From: "Carl Friedberg" <frida.fried@gmail.com>@ Subject: Re: Performance comparison Alpha ES40 vs Itanium rx3600I Message-ID: <890539d90611102354k7956ab69sf341b50078ccc64a@mail.gmail.com>   
 Hi Thomas,  M On 10 Nov 2006 13:38:00 -0800, twnews@kittles.com <twnews@kittles.com> wrote:  > Stephen Hoffman wrote: > > Syltrem wrote: > > G > >> How does one usually proceed, when time comes to upgrade a server?  > > J > >   Within the same processor architecture, I tend to look at speeds andF > > feeds.  Within and across architectures, I look at benchmarks, and$ > > preferably at my own benchmarks. > > G > >> It's easier when you stay on the same platform but now, we have to $ > >> switch from Alpha to Itanium... > > 9 > >   Did you look at a used (larger) AlphaServer system?  > G > I did and found that TCO for the Integrity appears to be a lot lower. G > For about the same upfront cash I can get what looks to be a slightly B > better server in I64 than Alpha (my mileage may very :) ).  I amH > banking that despite some bad current trends and indications, VMS willH > be around long enough that If I need to replace my whole cluster (onlyH > 4 Alphas), then I might as well migrate to Integrity and hopefully not' > need to migrate again for many years.  > O I wonder; I think it might be a bit early to migrate to I64. In your situation, I do you have a lot of VAX (not IEEE) floating point operations? If so, you I could get quite a performance hit on the I64; the only way to be sure, as ; several posters have suggested, is to do benchmark testing.   C If you are running ES40 Quad 833, you might get a nice bump with an > ES45 Quad 1000. These have 4 PCI buses (as opposed to 2 on theC ES40); and are selling on Ebay in the 4000USD range now. Be careful C for the mod 2 version if you need more than 8 GB, as the 2GB memory J kits are special for this model. Other than that, there is almost no risk.  C ES45 Quad 1250 would be excellent, but I have not seen any on Ebay.  Yet.  > With an ES40 to ES45 upgrade, I believe you would not need anyH licenses at all, but I'm not positive about the SMP licenses. If you are= lucky you might pickup a Quad ES45 with VMS SMP licenses, but A that will cost you a lot more than the 4000USD I mentioned above.   @ Depending on the mix of I/O and CPU, you could get a 2 to 4 fold0 benefit by upgrading to the ES45, I would guess.   Carl Friedberg   ------------------------------  # Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:10:34 GMT . From: Jack Patteeuw <jack.patteeuw@nospam.net>@ Subject: Re: Performance comparison Alpha ES40 vs Itanium rx36009 Message-ID: <Kci5h.2358$6t.31@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com>    JF Mezei wrote:  > A couple of general comments:  >  <snip> > G > When you look at costs though, wouldn't it cost less to just upgrade  
 > your CPUs ?  > F > the HP web page for the ES series shows ES45 has EV68 processors at K > 1250Mhz.   Any chance you might be able to upgrade the ES40 CPUs to have   > the newer 1250mhz ones ?  H I'm in a similar situation and ES40 to ES45 is a box swap that is a lot 0 more money then slipping in some new CPU boards.  D Actually, if this is a cluster, adding anther ES40, 4x833Mhz **IS** F pretty inexpensive these days, except for the licenses) !  Heck, used I equipment dealers (and eBay'ers) are practically giving away ES40 500Mhz   CPU boards !   ------------------------------  # Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:01:49 GMT . From: Jack Patteeuw <jack.patteeuw@nospam.net>@ Subject: Re: Performance comparison Alpha ES40 vs Itanium rx3600; Message-ID: <x4i5h.2357$6t.1228@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com>    Syltrem wrote:H > "Stephen Hoffman" <Hoff@HoffmanLabs-RemoveThis-.Org> wrote in message 8 >>   Did you look at a used (larger) AlphaServer system? >  >  > Yes O > It is more expensive. The cost of the machine itself may be somewhat better,  M > but the support contract is too expensive compared to the 3 years warranty  & > that comes with the Integrity server >  >   E I know that this is not everyone's "cup of tea" but the cost of used  F AlphaServers, especially ES40's, has driven my company (a Fortune 100 H currently on hard times) so seriously consider dropping all maintenance E contracts, buying a few spares parts and going 100% self maintenance.   F All disk are currently RAIDed (1 or 5) via HSJ80's with hot spares in G place and a couple of additional cold spare.  We are fortunate for our  I apps that we don't need massive amounts of disk because the biggest blue  9 StoageWorks disk were only 36 GB, but that's okay for us.    ------------------------------    Date: 11 Nov 2006 08:47:05 -0800< From: "Hein RMS van den Heuvel" <heinvandenheuvel@gmail.com>@ Subject: Re: Performance comparison Alpha ES40 vs Itanium rx3600C Message-ID: <1163263625.149363.204250@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>    Syltrem wrote: > I > How does one usually proceed, when time comes to upgrade a server? It's K > easier when you stay on the same platform but now, we have to switch from  > Alpha to Itanium...   5 Sounds like Oracle is a major component of your load. A Why not move all the Oracle instances to extra (Itanium) machine? $ That would be nearly transparent no? No user code to migrate.) Just some tnsnames.ora entries to adjust? D You could possibly even prepare then tnsnames to try the new machine8 already as a first choice then failover the the old box.  I > VAX to Alpha was quite simple too, probably most if not all Alphas were K > faster than any model of VAX. The same is not true with Alpha and Itanium  > but there is no guidelines.   D It is largely true. Any current itanium will do better than the ES40  F But with an ES40 @ 833, there is also still a lot of room in the Alpha line. F An ES45 @ 1000 can be expected to give 20% more power accourding to my  own SAP benchmarks back in 2001:B http://www50.sap.com/benchmarkdata/sd2tier.asp  (certs 2001009 and 2001040). The 1250 should bring that up some more still.  F These SAP tests were under Tru64, and like any benchmark were ofcoruseE somewhat artificial, but more realistic than SPECints or TPC. They do ( have some Oracle component ( 10  - 15% )  E I also tested a 32 P  GS1280 @1150, which on a 4 P basis would be 65%  faster ( cert 2003004 )   E >From that I expect an 8p ES80 @1150 to have 3.3 x ES40 @833 capacity   A But as indicated... an Itanium may well provide a much better TOC   D The same test for a rx4640 @ 1300 running hpux shows 2 x  more powerC than the ES40 @833. (cert 2003066) and as an 8p with the mx2 @ 1100 ' chips it shows almost 4x (cert 2004020)   C If you can just add a modest sized Itanium to your setup for Oracle E then that might me a great deal to bring lots more power with minimal  changes.      > Thanks for your thoughts	 > Syltrem    Hope this helps some.  Hein.    ------------------------------  % Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 02:18:45 -0500 . From: "Carl Friedberg" <frida.fried@gmail.com>J Subject: Re: Recommendations for a Windows client for accessing DecwindowsI Message-ID: <890539d90611102318m4c772496s1960cd188260bfda@mail.gmail.com>   H I agree with Jack. Hummingbird eXceed is an excellent tool; have used it? for ages as the VT3xx emulator, as well as some IBM not-so-dumb I emulators. Handles printing for AS400 quite well. It is not cheap, but it J is good; and the support is top-notch. Also running a few versions behind.  P In version 9 there was a silly problem, where the title bar didn't get set untilI the window was minimized. Hummingbird had that fixed in less than a week.   L I can't say enough good things about the product. I think I've used it since) version 3, on NT. It's now at version 11.    Carl Friedberg  < On 11/10/06, Jack Patteeuw <jack.patteeuw@nospam.net> wrote:& > > on 5-11-2006 6:15 Gremlin wrote... > >> Please? > > 1 > > Assuming you mean a Windows X display server:  > I > I am currently working in a shop where we have well over 1000 copies of D > Hummingbird Exceed installed to interface with VAX/VMS, Alpha/VMS,) > Tru64, Solaris and who knows what else.  > I > We use it on many, many different type of PCs (laptop, low end desktops I > w/integrated graphics, high-end "workstations" with 3D graphics) and on H > both Win2K and WinXP.  I have seen it spin a wire frame (requires lotsG > of network band width) and a shaded solid model (using the 3D upgrade ) > package) with "reasonable" performance.  > F > This software is do "bulletproof" we are comfortably running 4 majorH > version behind "production" and have not seen any issues (that weren't" > self inflicted) in over 7 years. > A > Exceed even works with PuTTY/SSH for remote access through VPNs  > G > It is not "free", and I don't normally give any software such glowing  > endorsements, but I love it  >  > Jack >    ------------------------------  # Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:21:40 GMT . From: Jack Patteeuw <jack.patteeuw@nospam.net>? Subject: Re: writing fixed size records with one shorter record ; Message-ID: <8ni5h.2359$6t.1776@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com>    JF Mezei wrote:   > Hein RMS van den Heuvel wrote:< >> Well, it is not really a fixed length 512 file is it now?; >> Just some tools seemed to find it handy to call it that.  >  <snip> > K > It would *appear* to me that if you do not put the equivalent of ctx=rec  K > as record processing option,  you *should* be able to write raw data and  I > the system fills the blocks and when you close the file, it should set  4 > the end of file marker where you last write ended.  F IIRC, you can do this from Fortran by NOT using a FORMAT specifier on  your WRITE statement.   G You can "fake" doing block IO by simple putting the data in a 512 byte  G array and writing that.  For the last "record" only write out what you   have put in that buffer so far.    ------------------------------   End of INFO-VAX 2006.621 ************************                                                                                ܱ]և"QteK'=W>cgD!]{z|໒uT5zjfC[Ok	 [$6
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