young@hamavnet (02/08/91)
Hello (especially to any Motorola people that are on the net) Does Motorola change or have changed the Seagate drives that they install into their systems. It seems that the word is that they do and the drives will give flaky behavior if running Unix. I am specifically talking about the new ST41200N 1.2GB drive. In the past I have been able to us Imprimis drives just fine. -- Brian A. Young | young@hamavnet.com | Who gives a rip! Engineering Services | mcdapps!mcdhwd!briany | Avnet Computer | fax: 213 280 3944 |
hulsebos@ehviea.ine.philips.nl (rob hulsebos) (02/13/91)
In article <1991Feb7.123020.20@hamavnet> young@hamavnet writes: >Does Motorola change or have changed the Seagate drives that they install into >their systems. It seems that the word is that they do and the drives will give >flaky behavior if running Unix. As a matter of coincidence, we have a similar problem with Teac floppydrives and the answer came in today. It appears that there are several versions of firmware on the Teacs, the most up-to-date being ROM's level "L". But Teac drives as delivered by Motorola have level "F" or "G". Probably the SCSI-drivers are not upwards compatible, so you can not use the latest firmware revisions which you normally get when you just order a drive. Motorola is just making sure that the hardware they deliver works with their SCSI-drivers. Sometimes, "updates" aren't !!!
tony@mwuk.UUCP (Tony Mountifield) (02/14/91)
In article <941@ehviea.ine.philips.nl> hulsebos@ehviea.UUCP (rob hulsebos) writes: > As a matter of coincidence, we have a similar problem with Teac floppydrives > and the answer came in today. > > It appears that there are several versions of firmware on the Teacs, the > most up-to-date being ROM's level "L". But Teac drives as delivered by > Motorola have level "F" or "G". Probably the SCSI-drivers are not upwards > compatible, so you can not use the latest firmware revisions which you > normally get when you just order a drive. Motorola is just making sure that > the hardware they deliver works with their SCSI-drivers. > > Sometimes, "updates" aren't !!! The situation is more complex than that. There are *TWO* versions of the FC-1 SCSI interface that is attached to the FD-235 floppy drives. The FC-1-00 is the "Teac standard" version, and I have seen a revision "M". The FC-1-01 is a "Motorola special" version which was designed to emulate another drive that Motorola already had drivers for. The two differ particularly in their Mode Select parameters, but there may be other differences. The complete part numbers are, I think: FD-235HS-300, FD-235JS-400 (Teac version with FC-1-00) FD-235HS-301, FD-235JS-401 (Motorola version with FC-1-01) I have also heard rumour that the 00 version is not available in the US, only the 01 version. -- Tony Mountifield. | Microware Systems (UK) Ltd. MAIL: tony@mwuk.uucp | Leylands Farm, Nobs Crook, INET: tony%mwuk.uucp@ukc.ac.uk | Colden Common, WINCHESTER, SO21 1TH. UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!mwuk!tony | Tel: 0703 601990 Fax: 0703 601991 **** OS-9, OS-9000 Real Time Systems **** MS-DOS - just say "No!" ****
dtb@adpplz.UUCP (Tom Beach) (02/15/91)
We use Motorola 88000 based systems widely. Motorola frequently has their device vendors provide customized firmware to provide extended functionality OR compatibility with other devices in the product line. I have heard that Motorola is dissatisfied with some of the Seagate 3.5" devices which they were using and are changing vendors of the 3.5" devices. While we don't use the 1200 MB drive we use the 150, 300 and 600 MB devices. I am not aware of any plans by Motorola to phase out any of these devices. Tom ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Tom Beach : Sr Project Engineer : Mass Storage Technology | | phone : (503) 294-1541 | | email : uunet : dtb@adpplz.uucp | | ADP Dealer Services, ADP Plaza, 2525 S.W. 1st Ave, Portland OR, 97201 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------