grabhorn@marlin.NOSC.MIL (Steven W. Grabhorn) (02/28/89)
For those of you thinking of buying or have already bought the 386/ix Applications Platform discussed here recently, I just called Interactive Systems for info on upgrading from version 1.0.5 to version 2.0.1 (version 2.1 does not exist, 2.0.1 includes the bugfixes to 2.0). The lady I talked to implied that an upgrade to version 1.0.6 and then to 2.0.1 is not possible; she made it sound that 2.0.1 is the only version shipping. The cost for the unlimited user version is $465, I didn't write down the cost for the 1-2 user version but I believe it was around $360. The phone number for for Interactive Systems in Santa Monica, CA is 213-453-8649. There is also a sales number that will take credit card orders for the upgrade: 800-537-5324. Well, I'm going for it, my new puppy swiped the box of origional disks off my desk and took them out in the backyard to play with them. rats! steve (grabhorn@nosc.mil which is something like !sdcsvax!nosc!marlin!grabhorn)
karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) (03/01/89)
In article <1136@marlin.NOSC.MIL> grabhorn@marlin.NOSC.MIL (Steven W. Grabhorn) writes: >..... (version 2.1 does not exist, 2.0.1 includes the bugfixes to 2.0). Well, they THINK it includes the bugfixes. Unfortunately, it still may not work right for you. There is a SERIOUS problem in Interactive's installation software. We have brought it up twice; the first time they shipped a "fix" (which is the 2.0.1 update), the second time (they didn't fix it right the first time!) we're still waiting for results on. The trouble manifests itself if you try to enter BFI indices when you are installing the drive. If your drive is a RLL (and probably ESDI too) unit, the BFI option is WORTHLESS; it doesn't map out sectors right and in some cases won't even accept a valid BFI! Interactive does NOT support "map out this entire track as defective", so you have NO CHOICE in the matter most of the time. Manufacturers, as a rule, supply defect information as "head/cylinder/BFI". Interactive gives you three choices for entering bad track info (absolute sector, sector within track and head, and head/cyl/bfi). Of course, the first TWO are useless as no manufacturer I have EVER, EVER run across uses these formats for defect mapping..... The _ONLY_ way to end up with an installation that has a semi-correct defect table is to let the system destructively test the disk. This, unfortunately, is not a solution, as high-performance disk hardware will be able to read/write in a defective spot on the disk some of the time, even with ECC and retries turned off. The end result is that you'll end up with KNOWN BAD AREAS in your filesystems, and slow corruption of your data! This, coupled with "mkpart -A"'s desire to eat VTOC tables (a customer of ours had his VTOC _DESTROYED_ by mkpart while attempting to add a bad sector!) makes the entire system worthless to us at present..... we've not yet figured out how to obtain flag-free disks at a reasonable cost, nor do we see that as a reasonable solution. This bug exists in 386/ix V1.0.6 AND V2.x. It has been confirmed by the folks in California at Interactive. I wouldn't touch the product until this is claimed and PROVEN to be fixed; the risk to our data is too great to play around with this kind of foolishness. If Interactive is listening, we'd be more than happy to be a guinea pig in testing their "new and correct" installation software.... (Note that the software itself, once installed, appears ok -- I've noted no operational problems; even Xenix compatibility appears to be ok. IF AND WHEN they get the installation working properly they'll have a reasonable product). Users who need dumb-multiport card support for Interactive 386/ix V2.x can also call us; we have an installable driver that will run up to 24 ports spread across three IRQ lines; it even recognizes and uses 16550A UARTs! --- Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, ddsw1!karl) Data: [+1 312 566-8912], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. "Quality solutions at a fair price"