nick@qtnet.uucp (Nick Lawes) (08/10/90)
Firstly, I'd like to apologise if this sort of request has been made 'all too often' of late. I haven't been keeping in touch with News as much as I'd like to recently :-( For a while now, a number of things relating to PC's / disks etc have been worrying me, but I never bothered to ask... I am now planning an upgrade to my system, and find that I really need to find out some bits and pieces before lashing out the cash... I have a few hardware / software / product questions which I'd like to ask those of you that have 'been through it all before'... I have yet to find a shop that understands the sort of questions I'd like to ask, let alone answer them! Any answers will make a happy man very old :-) Existing system: Tandon 386/20, 4MB RAM, 64K Cache 110MB RLL Disk SCO Xenix 2.3.2, 2.2 Dev kit, 2.2? Text kit Planned upgrade: 8MB RAM ST4385N 327MB SCSI Disk WD7000-FASST2 AT 16-bit SCSI controller Now for the questions (many of them, in no particular order): Can I run the SCSI controller / drive with my existing Xenix ? I hear "GT" versions mentioned from time to time. Will it work if I move over to SCO Unix ? My PC has a config menu allowing drive types to be entered into the EEPROM. The biggest drive allowed is 110MB. If I add a larger drive (be it SCSI, ESDI etc) how do I enter the relevant drive type? Where does the list of drive types come from (BIOS or controller ) ? I presume that large drives may have more than 1024 cylinders... how is this coped with on a PC ? Would ESDI or some other interface prove easier or better than SCSI ? Will the SCSI controller (WD7000-FASST AT..) support the twin floppies ? How about a tape streamer ? (More to the point, will Xenix / Unix support a SCSI streamer). Is there a viable upgrade path from SCO Xenix 2.3.2 to SCO Unix ? Will SCO Xenix binaries work with SCO Unix ? What is the SCO Unix system supplied with, and what kits are available ? (Development, tcp/ip, X11, VP/ix etc). Can anyone recommend a UK dealer for SCO Xenix / Unix packages. I have no intention of returning to the one who sold me the system in the first place. If you got this far ... thanks for reading the rubbish. Answers on a postcard to... (see below) Email or News relies appreciated. I don't mind summarising email replies if it's of interest to others... Cheers! Nick -- [ Nick Lawes, Technical Marketing | voice: +44 71 353 6723 ] [ Quotron Information Business Limited. | email: ..!ukc!slxsys!qtnet!nick ] [ 12 Norwich Street, London. EC4a 1BP | ham : G8ZHR @ GB3XP ]