[comp.sys.mips] Disk drive life

casey@gauss.llnl.gov (Casey Leedom) (02/05/90)

  Hhmmm, this thread on the CDC drives reminds me of some rumors I've
been hearing about the CDC Wren IV's and V's.  The two I've heard
specifically are that the Wren IV's don't work real well on the Sun
SparcStation I's because of a SCSI bus timing violation by the Wrens
which causes the SS1 to timeout and crash (a much too drastic solution,
but I suppose failure of one's root/swap disk should be considered as
serious ...)  The other rumor I heard was with respect to the Wren V
PROMs and the DEC Station 3100.  Apparently there is again some SCSI
violation in the PROMs of one production run that causes the DS3100 to
really get pissed (I don't remember what the exact effects were - but
they certainly prohibited the use of the Wren V.)

  The problems that several people have been complaining about with
regard to CDC drives sound suspiciously familiar.  What's annoying is that
CDC isn't doing a recall.  If something like this happened in the
automotive business you know there'd be a widely publicized recall.
Maybe it's because CDC doesn't think they can be sued for millions.
Maybe someone should abuse them of this misunderstanding of tort law.

Casey