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Date:      Fri, 24 May 1996 15:17:37 +0900 (JST)
From:      Michael Hancock <michaelh@cet.co.jp>
To:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.com
Subject:   Re: SDL cards
Message-ID:  <Pine.SV4.3.93.960524150236.5783D-100000@parkplace.cet.co.jp>
In-Reply-To: <m0uMerm-000IDOC@venus.mcs.com>

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On Thu, 23 May 1996, Karl Denninger, MCSNet wrote:

> > "Expensive" is a relative question, as always.  They do have the
> > advantage of actually mostly working, so you'll save a lot of time
> > trying to get ISDN D channel signaling software to work.  And then
> > tweaked to support the different phone switches, NI-1 vs. AT&T Custom,
> > different switch software "features", etc.

[..]
 
> > You should see the Pipeline 130 - T1 with built-in CSU/DSU and ISDN
> > BRI with NT1 in the same sized box.  Making it bigger than necessary
> > only makes it cost more.  I've got a P50 LS56 on a 56K Frame Relay
> > circuit at home, and it works great.
> 
> Yeah, ain't that a neat box?  An ISPs dream - T1 access with integrated ISDN
> dial backup (!) on one or two "B" channels.  I love those damn things; now
> if I could just get some shipped! :-)
> 
> Oh, they're cheap too (~$2k).  CISCO, watch out in the access router
> marketplace; you have some serious competition out there.

Cisco wasn't exactly the leader in this area.  They are playing catching
up to the Livingston's and the Ascends. 

> > Disclaimer: at my day job, I work at UUNET Technologies, and we have
> > about 500 Ascend MAX 4000 boxes deployed in the field on about 1000
> > ISDN PRI's.  Having the product work is a big feature.
> 
> Yep.  I run MCSNet, and we switched about a month ago from traditional
> modems to Maxen as well.  We also find that they work quite well.  Still
> some software quirks, but I'd never go back to the old way.
> 
> Being able to get 500+ lines in one 84" cabinet is a big plus :-)

Granted.  Ascends are very very nice.

But there is no hack value.  An ISDN-only solution using a P6 box with 3
busmastering SDLComm RISCom/Pri cards handling 69 incoming ISDN
connections with STAC compression would be very cool.

Sorry, maybe its just me, but I am enamored with doing things on PCs
running Unix.  It's getting better all the time too; the PCI bus is
starting to mature, there's incredible work being done on the FreeBSD VM,
and we have BSD TCP/IP.

-mh




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