Funny...I was just thinking of the RS/6000 routers a few days ago, and just today I thought about swinging by this forum after a long absence.
Anyway, the 6611 is indeed a router, and is a scaled down attempt by IBM at commercializing the RS/6000 routers used by the NSFnet from roughly 1990-1997. The original T3 based NSFnet used RS/6000-930s stuffed with those special Microchannel cards. These cards were somewhat experimental at the time. The big RS/6000s generally had three or four of these cards, one of which was almost always FDDI, and the rest being HSSI, ethernet, or V.35. These cards are what do the routing - the RS/6000s are just there for the ride. Those i960s run a (very) scaled down mutant AIX.
These routers were very good for their time, and the engineers really liked having a "real" Unix machine as a router. The router cards, however, ran out of steam around 1996, I think due to the routing tables being just too small. IBM chose not to do anything, so the T3 backbone (ANSnet by then) chucked the technology and replaced the RS/6000s with Bay and Cisco routers.
I think only the ethernet, token, and V.35 cards were released to the public, with the 6611 - I do not think FDDI or HSSI did. I likely have the software on many old tapes, to be dumped on Al in due time.
Don't try to turn the 6611 back into a 320 - you will have a bad time. I have not seen a 6611 in many years, but I think there are some gotchas.
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Will, ex-ANS
Anyway, the 6611 is indeed a router, and is a scaled down attempt by IBM at commercializing the RS/6000 routers used by the NSFnet from roughly 1990-1997. The original T3 based NSFnet used RS/6000-930s stuffed with those special Microchannel cards. These cards were somewhat experimental at the time. The big RS/6000s generally had three or four of these cards, one of which was almost always FDDI, and the rest being HSSI, ethernet, or V.35. These cards are what do the routing - the RS/6000s are just there for the ride. Those i960s run a (very) scaled down mutant AIX.
These routers were very good for their time, and the engineers really liked having a "real" Unix machine as a router. The router cards, however, ran out of steam around 1996, I think due to the routing tables being just too small. IBM chose not to do anything, so the T3 backbone (ANSnet by then) chucked the technology and replaced the RS/6000s with Bay and Cisco routers.
I think only the ethernet, token, and V.35 cards were released to the public, with the 6611 - I do not think FDDI or HSSI did. I likely have the software on many old tapes, to be dumped on Al in due time.
Don't try to turn the 6611 back into a 320 - you will have a bad time. I have not seen a 6611 in many years, but I think there are some gotchas.
--
Will, ex-ANS