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From: ferrick@acsu.buffalo.edu (Patrick K. Ferrick)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Group purchase, anyone?
Message-ID: <BrG6tt.7o7@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Date: 15 Jul 92 20:41:53 GMT
Sender: nntp@acsu.buffalo.edu
Organization: UB
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Nntp-Posting-Host: lictor.acsu.buffalo.edu
I'm getting ready to buy a 486/33 EISA motherboard specifically to run 386BSD,
and I would be very interested in finding out what your feelings are about the
following ideas:
1. If others are planning a similar purchase, might we get a few people
together and try to get a better deal on a group order? I would think
that in the case of motherboards, even 10 people buying together would be
enough to get us some kind of a break from a medium-size distributor. If
you have any thoughts on this, by all means please comment!
2. The EISA bus is not yet supported by 386BSD, and from what I have been
told is unlikely to be any time soon _unless_ Bill and Lynn get some EISA
hardware to play with. :-) How about this: if a few of us end up getting
the same kind of motherboard, wouldn't it make sense for us to each kick
in $50 or whatever to get one for the developers? Wouldn't it be worth
something to know that the OS is being developed to run on the _same_
kind of board _you_ have? It is to me, but maybe it's just that I don't
have the expertise to hack in EISA support myself! Again, please comment.
3. Maybe we could agree on several interface cards while we're at it. So
far, it sounds like an Adaptek EISA/SCSI card might be one good way to go.
(I forget the number, 1750 or something but you know the one I mean :-)
For the moment, run it in 16-bit mode. When EISA support comes along,
there you are...(I heard 0.3, but there's that question of hardware!)
Same deal as #2, where we get one for the developers, too.
If you're contemplating a motherboard upgrade, _please_ join the discussion!
I would also be interested in opinions about _which_ motherboard would be a
good choice to run 386BSD. So far, I have yet to find one with anything but a
direct-mapped secondary RAM cache, which from what I have read may not be best
for running a Unix-like OS.
I don't know about anybody else, but some sort of coordinated effort in the
hardware department seems valuable enough to me that I'd be willing to act as
a coordinator of some sort. Let me know what you think. Thanks for your input!
pat