matt@nanovx.UUCP (Matt Brandt) (10/22/89)
jca@pnet01.cts.com writes:
My TOPS sales representative informed me about a month ago that the only MCA
local/flashtalk card is by a company called DayStar, but he informed me that
the card itself is a piece of crap. It hangs and has an assortment of
engineering problems. After things are squared away in the bay area, I'm
going to call TOPS and find out if the MCA flashcard uses BusMaster. If it
doesn't, it isn't going to be worth having. You might as well have a PC with
a flashcard if the MCA card doesn't use BusMaster. The only work around for
getting an MCA machine into a TOPS network is to put a 3-Com ethernet board
(the one that Sun recommends for PC-NFS) and put it into TOPS via ethernet. I
don't know how soon the MCA flashcard will be here, but until then, ethernet
is the only alternative.
-----------------------------------
Geez this burns me... Lets set the record straight guys. DayStar Digital
makes the ONLY localtalk card for the MCA. We also have a card for the
pc using about the same design (minus the MCA interface). The card DOES NOT
have problems, IS NOT a piece of crap, and works very well. The software
that comes with the card may, or may not, be to your liking but is very
functional. AppleShare Workstation 2.0 (straight from Apple) works with
the card if you like their software better. For the price you get a nice
piece of hardware that uses NO DMA, NO INTERRUPTS, and only a few I/O
addresses resulting in VERY few configuration problems. The software that
is shipped with the card gives you the ability to direct devices to
LocalTalk printers with or without some postscript translation. It also
comes with an AppleShare redirector that allows you to transparently
access servers on localtalk. Even TOPs will work with it with a little
fiddling. In my opinion the Apple software is a little nicer for the
average joe because it is all menu driven whereas our software uses a
mostly command line interface.
I am a little suprised that TOPS would badmouth us like that. It seems
kind of unprofessional especially in light of the fact that they licenced
our design (I suppose the card they plan to introduce is based on it).
In any event, The referenced message was in bad taste. You should only
make assertions of that type based on personal experience or on the witness
of MANY other people, not on what one competetor's salesperson says.
If you would like more info on our localtalk card call DayStar at
(404)967-2077 or Email me at this address.
Matt Brandt
DayStar Digital Inc.
5556 Atlanta Hwy.
Flowery Branch, GA 30542 gatech!nanovx!mattjca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) (10/26/89)
matt@nanovx.UUCP (Matt Brandt) writes: >Geez this burns me... Lets set the record straight guys. DayStar Digital >makes the ONLY localtalk card for the MCA. We also have a card for the I didn't say that there were others. In fact, I am waiting for TOPS to produce their MCA Apple/FlashTalk card. >pc using about the same design (minus the MCA interface). The card DOES NOT >have problems, IS NOT a piece of crap, and works very well. The software >that comes with the card may, or may not, be to your liking but is very >functional. AppleShare Workstation 2.0 (straight from Apple) works with >the card if you like their software better. For the price you get a nice >piece of hardware that uses NO DMA, NO INTERRUPTS, and only a few I/O >addresses resulting in VERY few configuration problems. The software that Prove it to me then. I will send you my mailing address at work. Since we don't have an in-house MCA machine as of yet, I can't really test such a card yet. I do, however, have quite a few customers that have MCA machines that do want to hook into a TOPS network. I don't want to spend all of my time at a customer site correcting an engineering problem with a piece of hardware since it isn't something I can't fix. I also don't want to deal with RMA'ing a problem piece of hardware. My job is to find solutions for my customers, not to give myself an ulcer by latching to the first thing that appears to work. I have a very caveat emptor attitude about any new product out there. My TOPS sales rep told me what TOPS tech support has noted about your product and it appears to be more than a little fiddling to get to work. Note that if the card doesn't utilitize BusMaster technology on MCA, I'm just going to recommend to my customers to get an ethernet card that does. Not supporting BusMaster defeats the entire purpose of buying an MCA machine. Apple/FlashTalk is slow and I'm a firm believer that if MCA is utilitized properly, the performance on the MCA machine's end will be improved. Case and point, Quantum hard drives have given me a big ulcer. As a result, my supervisor and I have mutually agreed to put a freeze on all purchase orders for the Quantum P40S and P80S. We are trying to get the P105S, but we have been having problems in finding a distributor that has them in stock. The only exception we make is if the customer DEMANDS a product we have a purchase order freeze on. In which case I kindly inform the customer in a "you'll be sorry" tone of voice of the problem and present documentation of the problem in the form of printed articles from here that are kept in my file labeled "ulcer prevention." /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Flames: /dev/null (on my Minix partition) *--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * ARPA : crash!pnet01!jca@nosc.mil * INET : jca@pnet01.cts.com * UUCP : {nosc ucsd hplabs!hd-sdd}!crash!pnet01!jca *--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Note : My opinions are that...mine. My boss doesn't pay me enough to * speak in the best interests of the company (yet). *--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/