18 Aug
2005
18 Aug
'05
9:04 p.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
Are we talking about the same cards? The ones I am referring to are known
as "F960", "H960", "E386" and so forth. The first letter
refers to the
interface (FDDI, HSSI, Ethernet, and so forth) and the number indicates
the processor. A stripped down AIX ran on these cards (yes, AIX on a
80386 - deal with it) to perform the routing. The host RS/6000 basically
just did housekeeping.
The FDDI and HSSI cards (I don't think) ever became a real product, with
less than 300 or so made. The V.35 and Ethernet cards did, and pop up from
time to time (they were used in a specially badged RS/6000-320 called a
<mumble> Network Processor).
Some of those V.35 cards were in service as recently as 2 years go in
Austin, running in a set of 7012-39x systems. For all I know they still
are - they were doing the job they were installed to do and the company
hadn't found a great replacement, so they may be running them still.
We're not talking some mom & pop ISP operation, either. This was in
a major backbone provider's NOC.
Doc