[comp.sys.hp] SCSI on the Series 700

wayne@helix.nih.gov (Wayne Rasband) (04/24/91)

The HP price list for the Series 700 machines has the following curious 
disclaimer:

Note: All HP Apollo 9000 Series 700 storage products comply with
the SCSI II specifications. The SCSI II specification allows for
a variety of implementations, and HP uses this variety to achieve
the range of price/performance required by our customers.

Does any one know what this means and why it was put in the price list? 
Does it mean that SCSI on the Series 700 is non-standard, and it is going 
to be difficult, if not impossible, to attach 3rd party SCSI devices?

--wayne

ken@hpcupt3.cup.hp.com (Kenneth M. Sumrall) (05/01/91)

>The HP price list for the Series 700 machines has the following curious 
>disclaimer:
>
>Note: All HP Apollo 9000 Series 700 storage products comply with
>the SCSI II specifications. The SCSI II specification allows for
>a variety of implementations, and HP uses this variety to achieve
>the range of price/performance required by our customers.
>
>Does any one know what this means and why it was put in the price list? 
>Does it mean that SCSI on the Series 700 is non-standard, and it is going 
>to be difficult, if not impossible, to attach 3rd party SCSI devices?
>
IMHO, which is not HP's opinion, this was probably written so HP wouldn't
have to support every 3rd party SCSI drive out there.  If it works, great!
If it doesn't, oh well.  I'll bet that most SCSI drives from reputable
companies would work just fine.

BTW, my old roommate, who worked at Maxtor, said he used to hear the
firmware guys bitching about having to go through hoops in order to work
with every SCSI interface card in the world.

>--wayne
>
| Ken Sumrall                          |     Internet: ken%hpda@hplabs.hp.com |
| HP California Language Labs          |           UUCP:  ...!hplabs!hpda!ken |
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erics@hpindda.cup.hp.com (Dale McAtee) (05/03/91)

I believe it trys to state what eventually becomes obvious to anyone
who deals with implementing SCSI peripherals from multiple vendors....

SCSI and SCSI II are standards, but many vendor's products have features
that may "improve" on the standards, etc.  What I believe the statement
(my own interpretation, not HP's) you quoted is trying to stay, is that, 
in the real world, since SCSI peripheral vendors are sometimes implementing
things slightly different, the S/700 does it's best to interface to these
different "dialects" of SCSI

This is my interpretation, not necessarily that of HP, the folks that make
the S/700, disc products, the commissioner of baseball, etc.