perry@atux01.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) (09/28/87)
In article <5245@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>, spencer@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Randy Spencer) writes: > I will theorize that the reason that it hasn't come out is that you > want people to boot from a hard disk, if your card did that, then it > would not only be faster than the CBM HD controller, it would also > let the user boot, which the CBM one will not. Is that where it is at? > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > Randy Spencer P.O. Box 4542 Berkeley CA 94704 (415)284-4740 Randy, I am happy to say the SDP's now DO in fact exist. We will have one on display at AmiExpo in New York, October 10, 11, and 12. Part of the de- lay was in fact waiting for dust to settle concerning hard disk booting. CBM has finalized a hard disk boot strategy and it will come out in a later release (or sub-release) of the O.S. The only thing I can add besides the fact that the SDP fully supports it, is that CBM did an excel- lent job in the design of a strategy which at the same time extends the Autoconfig standard but is also completely in line with the existing stan- dard's philosphy. I don't know if anyone else's hard disk controller will support the hard disk boot standard but as time goes on, I am sure it will become a required option. About your idea that we buy back other people's disk controllers in trade for discounts on the SDP, well, there really won't be a single productive purpose we could put the traded in controllers to work in. With memory boards, at least we could reuse the ram. With disk controllers, I'm willing to bet our SDP does not share a single major component in common with what would amount to be a pile of junk. However, we will provide SDP based support for every other manu- facturer supplied disk drive (if it is possible - we'll do it). In every case so far with one exception (the BBB disk controller), the cost of the drive dominates the cost of the controller. So toss away or sell your con- troller and reuse the drive. Perry Kivolowitz - ASDG Incorporated - (201) 563-0529
lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Gerard Lachac) (09/29/87)
In article <541@atux01.UUCP> perry@atux01.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) writes: > > CBM has finalized a hard disk boot strategy and it will come out >in a later release (or sub-release) of the O.S. The only thing I can add >besides the fact that the SDP fully supports it, is that CBM did an excel- >lent job in the design of a strategy which at the same time extends the >Autoconfig standard but is also completely in line with the existing stan- >dard's philosphy. Now the way I understand this discussion is that the "standard" Amiga Hard drive controller, the A2090, will not autoboot when this feature becomes available? For CBM to obsolete their own hardware is pretty ridiculous and I find it hard to believe. Could we have one of the techies at CBM answer this question: Will the A2090 allow Autoboot? Considering I have an A2090 and a 40meg Miniscribe on it's way to me later this week ($655, not a bad deal) I have a vested interest in the answer. -- "Truth is false and logic lost..." - Neil Peart (who at the time didn't realize he was talking about RU) lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu <--------OR--------> {seismo|ames}!rutgers!topaz!lachac
andy@cbmvax.UUCP (09/30/87)
In article <15145@topaz.rutgers.edu> lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Gerard Lachac) writes: >In article <541@atux01.UUCP> perry@atux01.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) writes: > Will the A2090 allow Autoboot? Nope. There's no driver ROM on the 2090 board; its driver is loaded in from Workbench. Thus, no Autoboot. Just because a product is does not have a feature does not mean it is obsolete. The 2090 board has been ready for quite awhile. -- andy finkel {ihnp4|seismo|allegra}!cbmvax!andy Commodore-Amiga, Inc. "Interfere? Of course we'll interfere. Always do what you're best at, I always say." Any expressed opinions are mine; but feel free to share. I disclaim all responsibilities, all shapes, all sizes, all colors.
lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Gerard Lachac) (10/01/87)
In article <2434@cbmvax.UUCP> andy@cbmvax.UUCP (Andy Finkel) writes: >>In article <15145@topaz.rutgers.edu> lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Gerard Lachac) writes: >> Will the A2090 allow Autoboot? > >Nope. There's no driver ROM on the 2090 board; its driver is loaded >in from Workbench. Thus, no Autoboot. > >Just because a product is does not have a feature does not mean it is >obsolete. The 2090 board has been ready for quite awhile. OK, 'obsolete' was a bad term, I hang my head low... Of course having CBM's controller not auto-booting, makes for some confusing and frustrating times. Considering it will become the most wildly used one (since most dealers will have this board in stock) it seems like a definite deficiency. An obvious fix is keeping the same Workbench disk in df0: all the time. This will have a startup that mounts the harddrive and assign everything over to the harddrive. This just seems more like a kludge. Any chance of someone building an "auto-boot" tower for a A2090? (What do I know, I haven't even got mine yet... :-) -- "Truth is false and logic lost..." - Neil Peart (who at the time didn't realize he was talking about RU) lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu <--------OR--------> {seismo|ames}!rutgers!topaz!lachac