pts@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Paul T. Shannon) (04/11/89)
I'd like to add a second disk drive to a Masscomp 5400 (a small 68020 real time unix box). The 70 mb drive, and the floppy drive in the machine now both run off of an SCSI controller. I've combed the library looking for articles and books on the SCSI standard, and the best I've found is a May '86 article in Byte. Can anyone refer me to a thorough description of the SCSI? And can anyone give me advice on the pros and cons of buying a 3rd party SCSI drive for our Masscomp? The list price Masscomp (now Concurrent) asks for a 350 mb drive is $8000. JDR Microdevices catalog lists a Maxtor 340 mb, 16 ms seek time, SCSI, for $2395. Thanks.
mic@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Mic Lacey) (04/11/89)
I too am intrested in using a third party SCSI drive but on a Hewlett Packard workstation (HP 340, but info on any HP 3xx would be cool). Is there a good reason why SCSI drives are sooooo expensive when you buy them from the same company you are buying your workstation from? And why do I hear horror stories about third party SCSI drives being used on various workstations (esp. Sun), isn't SCSI supose to be a standard? -Mic
terryk@pinocchio.Encore.COM (Terence Kelleher) (04/11/89)
In article <2824@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> mic@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Mic Lacey) writes: >Is there a good >reason why SCSI drives are sooooo expensive when you buy them from the same >company you are buying your workstation from? And why do I hear horror >stories about third party SCSI drives being used on various workstations >(esp. Sun), isn't SCSI supose to be a standard? > > -Mic The basic reason why computer and workstaion manufacturers charge a bundle for disks is because they are also in the buisness of supporting them also and have to make it worth their effort. If I sell a disk to go on the system I sold and the disk has problems, I have to replace or fix it. I am also trying to work of the costs of my enginee ring investment every time I sell anything. Joe's discount disk outlet has no investment in engineering and if your disk has problems will provide you with the address of a manufacturers repair depot. SCSI is quite standard if vendors use the Common Command set, and most disk vendors do. The computer nmanufacturers however, may cut corners in the host side support by making assumptions about drives and not using the CCS commands to their fullest. One example is where you have a geometry table coded into the machine and on open have to specify to the driver the type of drive you are using. The information is readily available from the drives, but is not being used. The driver is probably a migration from an ESDI driver and carries a lot of overhead from then. Terry Kelleher, Encore Computer Phone: 508-460-0500 UUCP: {bu-cs,decvax,necntc,talcott}!encore!terryk Internet: terryk%pinocchio@multimax.ARPA
jlohmeye@entec.Wichita.NCR.COM (John Lohmeyer) (04/13/89)
In article <580@babbage.acc.virginia.edu> pts@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Paul T. Shannon) writes: > [stuff deleted] >I've combed the library looking for articles and books on the >SCSI standard, and the best I've found is a May '86 article >in Byte. Can anyone refer me to a thorough description of the >SCSI? > You can get a good overview of SCSI buy sending $9.95 (+5% sales tax if you live in Kansas -- unlikely 8-) to: C.J. Morey NCR Corporation SCSI Technology Group 3718 N. Rock Rd. Wichita, KS 67226 Ask for the "What is SCSI?" book. If you want a copy of the actual SCSI Standard, call either ANSI at (212) 642-4900 or Global Engineering Documents at (800) 854-7179 and ask for X3.131-1986. The ANSI price is $25 and the Global price is $40 (but Global actually fills your order without having to call repeatedly :-). If you want a copy of the draft SCSI-2 standard, you can also get that from Global for about $75. They know it as X3.131-198X. --- John Lohmeyer j.lohmeyer@Wichita.NCR.COM
noel@ubbs-nh.MV.COM (Noel Del More) (04/13/89)
In article <2824@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> mic@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Mic Lacey) writes: >I too am intrested in using a third party SCSI drive but on a Hewlett Packard >workstation (HP 340, but info on any HP 3xx would be cool). Is there a good >reason why SCSI drives are sooooo expensive when you buy them from the same >company you are buying your workstation from? And why do I hear horror >stories about third party SCSI drives being used on various workstations >(esp. Sun), isn't SCSI supose to be a standard? > > -Mic Forgive me as I may not have all the facts straight here but it may be good for a lead. I posted an article several weeks ago about Newbury liquidating their stock of drives because of their intention to withdraw from the U.S. marketplace (I also posted an update to that article today in misc.forsale). One fellow who bought one of their drives for his Sun sent me e-mail concerning his difficulties getting it to work on his system. Well, to make a long story short, I recently got another of the 380 mb. drives from Newbury and while doing so asked about the problems with Sun systems. I was told that the controller Sun used is slightly brain-damaged. And that the OEM who made the controllers fixed the problem but Sun is not providing the fix to its customers. The OEM's name escapes me at this time, but it was suggested that the OEM be contacted concerning the fix. BTW, in a previous article someone mentioed that Masscomp wanted $8000 for a 350 mb. SCSI drive. Well, my 380's cost me $1095.00 each from Newbury. Seems to me that one could buy a couple drives and a new controller that supported them for $8000 and still look good to his/her boss! Noel -- Noel B. Del More | decvax!ubbs-nh!noel 17 Meredith Drive | noel@ubbs-nh.mv.com Nashua, New Hampshire 03063 | It's unix me son! `taint spozed tah make cents