Severe Year2000 problems of E&S ESV and PS300

[Bush, Bruce]

Dear crystallographers -- I have just received a form letter from Evans &
Sutherland, apparently sent to me as an old-time (1970's-80's) user
of E&S graphics workstations.  From Maurice Smith, Manager of Tech
Support, it warns that:
   -- the obsolete  ESV workstation has a severe Year 2000 problem in 
     non-volatile RAM; the system will become unstable or refuse to boot on
1 Jan 2000.
     "It is, of course, possible to set the clock back, but the system would
have
     to be removed from your network [lest] the UNIX network time sync
function
     [] attempt to change the clock to the current date-time."
    Smith says that E&S will not fund a 'fix' to the problem, and recommends
    replacing the workstation.
-- The still-older PS300 graphics station can function; operator sets date
and time
  for file-date stamping.  Smith recommends choosing a suitable pre-2000
date.

The letterhead gives no phone number.  The address on the envelope is
E&S, 600 Komas Drive, P.O. Box 58700, Salt Lake City UT 84158.

I cannot directly vouch for this information, but there seems no reason for
anyone to make false statements.  A sad end to the lineage that I first used
as
LDS-1 (Serial#2), then MPS, then PS300, now overtaken by the millenium --
and by Toys-R-Us.

Best -- / Bruce L. Bush /  bruce_bush at merck.com 
 Merck Research Labs Rahway NJ 07065