The ECN No Name Newsletter is no longer being published. This is an archived issue.
[previous article] [next article]Please allow me to commend the Engineering Computer Network hardware staff for working many long nights and weekends, trying to minimize disruption of service to ECN users, while incorporating improvements into the ECN systems. Many of these improvements will be transparent to users, while others, such as bringing a new machine online, will be immediately apparent. While the Fall semester has been a busy one , plans are in the works for many additional upgrades during Spring semester throughout the network.
At the Ag site, network links have been upgraded between the AA and AB machines to 10 million bit per second ethernet. An ethernet link was also installed between these machines, and the Forestry department Integraph VAX 11/750 machine.
At the Civil site, the CA VAX was shut down, and moved out of the machine room. All of the CA users are now on the Gould completing CA's upgrade from VAX 11/780 to a Gould PN9080. Concurrent with this move, all of the CA terminals were moved to ANNEX box ports. Annex boxes are microcomputers used to directly connect terminals to the ECN high speed network cables. Each box connects 16 terminals.
At the EE site, the EE machine's memory has been upgraded to 16 Megabytes (an increase of 4 Megabytes) with future plans to upgrade to 64 Megabytes of memory. The AP120B, connected to the EE machine, is also being upgraded from 64K to 384K words of Main Data memory. The Program source memory will be upgraded from 2K to 4K words; and the transfer rate between the VAX- 11/780 and the AP120B has been increased by a factor of 8. Two machines were taken out of service: the PDP 11/45 EEG machine in September and the Harris 4800 EK machine in December.
At the Grissom site, the GA VAX was shut down, and moved out of the machine room. All of the GA users are now on the Gould PN-9080 (formerly G3). Concurrent with this move, all of the GA terminals were moved to ANNEX boxes. The GB machine was converted into a DUAL-CPU VAX-11/780. A departmental ethernet has been established from the new GA machine allowing the departments to connect several SUN systems into the ECN.
At the CMET site, a network link was added to the KA machine to connect the Physics department to ECN. The Physics machine is called "newton". Newton is a VAX-11/750 running UNIX.
At the ME site, the G2 Gould PN-9080 has been renamed MG. All terminal connections on the MB machine will be converted to ANNEX boxes in the near future. Dr. Hillberry's matlab machine, a SUN 3/180 system, has been connected to the ME department ethernet.
At the Potter site, several changes are in progress. The PA PDP-11/70 machine is being replaced with a VAX-11/780 machine. The PC VAX-11/780 machine is being converted into a DUAL-CPU VAX-11/780 machine. A fourth machine called "PD" will be added to the Potter machine room and will be used as a database server by the CINDAS laboratory. A new ethernet segment was installed from the Potter building to the Micheal Golden Engineering Laboratories to serve the ERC, CIMLAB, and CADLAB SUN systems. The PDP 11/45 CAD machine was taken out of service in late December.
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