This is a brief summary of the numerous responses (thanks to all of you
who sent them!) I received when I asked about alternatives to expanding
the number of serial ports on my Sun ELC.
Suggestions included using:
SCSI terminal servers
Ethernet terminal servers
S-Bus cards (not possible to do with an ELC -- no SBus slots!)
Using another Sun (3/??) on an attached network
I was trying to decide between using an Ethernet and SCSI terminal server.
The advantage of an Ethernet server (that I see) is that it is not as
physically constrained in its placement relative to the host. That was
the only thing that I liked more about the Ethernet solution.
Since price was also a factor, I decided on a Central Data ST1008+
SCSI terminal server. This is an 8-serial, 1-parallel port device
that attaches directly to the SCSI bus. I was able to buy a "demo"
unit from them for $640 (w/ full warranty). In pricing any Ethernet
server with similar capabilities, I was never able to find anything
that was less than $1000.
The Central Data terminal server was recommended by many people in their
responses. In addition, a tech support person (vic@cd.com) at Central
Data sent me a spec sheet, describing the capabilities of their products.
I talked with their sales people (1-800-482-0315) who were very knowledgeable
and answered all of my questions.
I ordered one about two weeks ago and installed it with little difficulty.
The problems that I did have were quickly acted upon by CD's technical
support staff. All in all, I'm quite pleased with their service and their
product.
If any of you who sent mail to me regarding a summary have specific questions,
send me more mail, and I'll be happy to answer them for you. (I received
over 2000 lines worth of responses, so I decided not to post *that* to
the net.)
Thanks again to all who helped,
Larry Ader
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Larry Ader ||
Sun Microsystems, Inc. ||
2550 Garcia Ave. M/S MPK03-201 || lra@caribou.sun.com (work)
Mountain View, CA 94043-1100 || ..!amdahl!echidna!lra (home)
ph. 415/688-9721 ||
or 1-800-435-7001 x49721 ||
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