rlcarr@athena.mit.edu (Rich Carreiro) (04/07/90)
I recently had a disturbing thought - what will happen to those of us who have non-CBM drive controllers when UNIX is released. I have a Microbotics HardFrame. I called them yesterday to ask this question. I was told that *IF* CBM makes the appropriate details known, then they will consider working on it. The person said that they don't have any real intention of grinding out UNIX drivers all by themselves because they feel (and probably justifiably so) that there won't be a demand for them. So, if I want UNIX, does that mean I am out of luck unless I get a CBM controller? Or does CBM plan to help 3rd party people with disk (and other) UNIX drivers? I realize that UNIX hasn't even beeen released yet, but the answer to this question (or even an authoritative hint) would be *VERY* important to those of us with non-CBM controllers, or those currently looking for a controller, who are also interested in UNIX, IMHO. And finally, if I end up selling my HardFrame and getting a 2091, will I have to reformat the drive, or could I get away with just running CBM's prep program? Thanks for any answers that anyone can provide. -- Hollywood's Animato Lives! ==> Mike Jittlov <== ARPA: rlcarr@space.mit.edu is UUCP: ...!mit-eddie!space.mit.edu!rlcarr ** The Wizard of ** BITNET: rlcarr@space.mit.edu *** Speed and Time ***
ski@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Lance Jones) (04/07/90)
In article <1990Apr7.044529.4320@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rlcarr@space.mit.edu (Animato) writes: >I recently had a disturbing thought - what will happen to those of us who >have non-CBM drive controllers when UNIX is released. > > ... > >So, if I want UNIX, does that mean I am out of luck unless I get a CBM >controller? Or does CBM plan to help 3rd party people with disk (and other) >UNIX drivers? I have talked with people from GVP before and they have reassured me numerous times that they will provide support for their products under Unix. This includes supplying device drivers and correcting any miscellaneous hardware problems that show up. They have also told me that they are a registered Unix developer (a somewhat vague statement, but that's what they say). Certainly if you look at the products they offer (030 boards, HD con- trollers, tape backups, ethernet cards) you would be inclined to believe that they plan to enter the Amiga Unix market. -Lance -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lance Jones Mail forwarded to: Vet Data Network jonesl@vet.vet.purdue.edu
riley@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Daniel S. Riley) (04/08/90)
In article <1990Apr7.044529.4320@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> rlcarr@space.mit.edu (Animato) writes: >So, if I want UNIX, does that mean I am out of luck unless I get a CBM >controller? Or does CBM plan to help 3rd party people with disk (and other) >UNIX drivers? I seem to recall that Microbotics has been complaining (on BIX) that Commodore simply hasn't told them anything about device drivers for Unix. Dunno how true this is, but it might explain their lack of enthusiasm. >And finally, if I end up selling my HardFrame and getting a 2091, will I >have to reformat the drive, or could I get away with just running CBM's >prep program? The HardFrame and the 2091 both adhere to Commodore's RDB specs for autobooting controllers, so you should be able to take a drive straight off the HardFrame, stick it on the 2091, and boot off of it without doing a thing. Of course, to run UNIX you'll have to reformat at least one partition as a UNIX file system, but you shouldn't have to low-level format the entire drive. Of course, I've never seen Commodore's Unix, so I could be wrong on that last bit. -Dan Riley (riley@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu, cornell!batcomputer!riley) -Wilson Lab, Cornell University