[27303] in Hotline Meeting
Old cluster machines
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gregory A Jackson)
Mon Mar 13 11:02:40 1995
To: Mike Jacknis <mjacknis@reuse.MIT.EDU>
Cc: hotline@MIT.EDU, dmw@MIT.EDU, bwporter@MIT.EDU, mjacknis@MIT.EDU,
szilagyi@MIT.EDU, seelig@MIT.EDU, dryfoo@MIT.EDU, sethf@MIT.EDU,
annmarie@MIT.EDU, lilykim@MIT.EDU, jyp@MIT.EDU
From: Gregory A Jackson <gjackson@MIT.EDU>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 1995 11:02:29 EST
Dan Weir forwarded your note to me.
The only machines we expect to replace during the coming year are DECstation
3100 and RS/6000-320 machines (I'm not sure where you heard that we'd be
replacing SPARCs, which we only began acquiring last year), although we may go
slightly beyond this.
When we replace a generation of machines it is very important, for operational
reasons, that we remove them from the environment. Therefore, except in rare
cases we do not re-deploy old Athena equipment at MIT, even in private hands,
since in our experience this inevitably leads to support and development
headaches. In the rare cases our obsolete machines remain at MIT, they do so
on the explicit condition that they *not* be used as Athena workstations.
In general our obsolete machines have tradein or salvage value, and we dispose
of them so as to maximize the recovery of this value (some have been traded
in, some have been sold). Funds from tradeins or salvage sales go back into
cluster equipment and operations, and thus benefit students across the board.
In some cases (most notably the PC-RTs) we have sent obsolete machines to
other institutions abroad that could make good use of them.
From your note it appears that your interest is in continuing to operate
obsolete Athena machines as Athena machines at MIT. Since this is against our
policy and practice, even if you are willing to try managing the machines, I'm
afraid we cannot consider your request. You're correct to say that the
education of MIT students should be our highest priority, and it is, but our
approach is to acquire, deploy, and operate the most up-to-date equipment we
can afford, rather than to keep outdated machines in service.
gj
e40-359a/MIT/Cambridge MA 02139
voice: (617) 253-3712
fax: (617) 258-8736
url: http://web.mit.edu/gjackson/www/home.html
key: pgp@pgp.mit.edu
