24 May
2004
24 May
'04
5:29 p.m.
The ANS 500 looks impressive, but your stuck running
one version of AIX and
there is no support for anything newer then what shipped with the unit (sure
there is probably a version of Linux for it). There really isn't much
information about these units around, must have died a quick death in the
market.
Actually, all false ^_^
The ANS can run Linux and NetBSD (NetBSD even boots directly on it, although
there is no internal video support yet -- you can get a true console either
through serial, or with any OF-compliant (read Mac-compatible) PCI video
card). There are actually two versions of AIX, 4.1.4 and 4.1.5, which are
available; and they actually died a lingering death. The margins were good,
but they sold a dismal number of them (list price was over $10,000 when new,
which probably soured even people used to Apple's high markups).
I don't see why an AWS95 isn't considered a
real server since it was the
best/last platform for A/UX, has a 300 watt power supply, security key that
controls power, and room for lots of scsi drives internally and externally.
I don't consider the AWS95 a true server because 1) the only reason it was
forced to run A/UX was the PDS lockout card -- pull that and it becomes a
Quadra 950 2) conversely, it's just a Q950 with a lockout card to make it
run A/UX only. The only thing that makes it a "server" (as opposed to the
workstation it was based on) is just the name.
The ANS series have tonnes of drive bays, a special fast SCSI backplane, six
PCI slots (only the 9600 matches this (at least for released Macs)), and
the 700 even has hot-swappable redundant power supplies and fans. While it
started life based on the 9500 architecture, the ANS went far beyond simply
an operating system facelift.
--
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Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com
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