Jon writes:
 
> I've read this very interesting thread.  As an HP employee, I'm kinda
> hesitant to speak up, considering the passion expressed in this thread,
 
But we appreciate it, even if you get somewhat singed :)
 
> 10 pounds of sugar into a 5 pound stack.  MPE was designed to be a
> multi-user on-line transaction box, and many of the low level design
> decisions make it difficult to shrink MPE down to size.  We have always
 
Uh...there is no need to "shrink MPE down to size".  MPE runs fine
on machines with 64MB and 1GB disk ... which is a low-end workstation.
 
In fact, I thought it was officially supported on machines with as little
as 24 MB  :)
 
> I was involved with both the old classic "Mighty Mouse" platforms and
> the MPE/iX "Nova" (9x7) platforms -- coming out with smaller systems is
> often more effort than coming out with bigger systems).
 
Mighty Mouse (T-MIT) was more than just putting MPE on a small machine ...
the machine's memory was the same size as many other HP3000s ... the new
items were the ease-of-use features added to MPE (FULLBACKUP command,
hardware time-of-day clock, and others) ...
features that immediately benefitted every single HP3000 (well, except for
the clock...but that wasn't a major effort that I know of).
 
In short...the effort wasn't made because of the "smaller" platform...the
effort was made to provide an enhanced usability system across *all* HP3000s...
addressing many, many long-time problems.
 
BTW, yes...I *did* just check the T-MIT Communicator, so I know
whereof I speak!
 
The primary area of MPE work that the Mighty Mouse might have required is in
the I/O architecture ... and that doesn't look too different (based on the
driver names).
 
 
 
> I ain't saying that we aren't willing to consider this --
 
but...that's precisely the problem: HP isn't willing to consider it.
(ok, more accurately: HP hasn't appeared to be willing to consider it.)
 
> that it is not as easy or simple as you might think.
 
My feeling is that if MPE is going to be on future 9000/8xx hardware,
you *must* start leveraging drivers ... and this is the best opportunity
to start doing that!
 
--
Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html