Re: Cheaper Servers?

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At 03:04 PM 4/12/02 +0100, you wrote:


>Vernon Hamberg wrote:
>
>>Does 'console' mean 'green-screen 5250 device', in your view? Or just
>>'dedicated device for use by the service processor, in addition to the
>>everyday processor the rest of us get to use?
>>
>>One of the beauties of OS/400 is its independence from hardware
>>changes. So
>>there seems no reason, other than time and money, that an LCD graphic
>>screen could not function in a text mode (with appropriate translation
>>from
>>block-mode 5250), as the console.
>Why should a console be text mode only.

It wouldn't, on a box like this. It looks like you would agree that a
console is the device(s) used for machine service. Not much would need to
change in the current OS/400 if all you do is change the device handling
low-level code to speak to an SVGA instead of 5250 device. But that already
exists, in the form of some kind of emulation, which could be onboard.
Maybe in X-Windows - whatever is simple. The machien already has lots of
Unix-like characteristics now, anyway.

-snip-

>This would create a true stand alone machine, independent of other
>operating systems and hardware. Without the Heath-Robinson arrangement
>of cables and machines required to obtain a console that we have at
>present. In my experience, the only reliable console that the iSeries
>has is a Twin-ax device and IBM want to get rid of these.

Form factor for various features could be a problem, in terms of
production. Would you really want a PC-grade NIC in this kind of box?

Would a smallish 250-type box with attached dedicated laptop looking thing
be acceptable? The box could have handles, like the early Macintosh.

BTW, is Heath-Robinson related to Rube Goldberg?

>Syd Nicholson