From: mike@socrates.umd.edu (Mike Santangelo (UNIX/VMS Sysmgr))
Subject: Re: scsi & HP
Organization: University of Maryland University College
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 22:18:30 GMT

wk@cup.hp.com (Wayne Krone) writes:

>mike@socrates.umd.edu (Mike Santangelo (UNIX/VMS Sysmgr)) writes:

>: Grrrr.  another case where I have been penalized for having an 8X5 Model
>: HP9000.  I've discussed this at length with my SE as he discovered it
>: as well, "the lab" picked the 8X5 (825/835/845) to do the initial port
>: of HP-UX 8.0 to, then from that base release (and time is moving on here)
>: started the minor bootstrap work needed to create the versions of 8.0
>: to run on the other HP9000 PA-RISC families (8X7, 700 series, 850/855, 870-x00,
>: etc) AND ROLL IN THE [NEW] FEATURES INTO THESE, leaving the base 8.00
>: for the 8x5 family back in the stone ages.  This has included several
>: bug fixes for the layered software.  SCSI powerfail then apparently is
>: just another example, sigh...
>: 
>: Comment?

>8.0 supported all systems available at the time it shipped:  8x2, 8x5,
>8x0, s300, s400, etc.  The remaining systems we have today (s700, 8x7,
>and 870/[234]00) were not ready for hardware release until after 8.0 was
>already shipping.

>The s800 minor releases include support for new hardware and defect
>fixes but generally not any new software features.  The major releases
>pull the minor releases together and add new software features.

No new MAJOR software features perhaps.  A number of non-kernel
program and device driver bug fixes were rolled automatically into the
later versions of HP-UX 8.0 but no attempt was made to clean them up
in the master installation tapes you get for a system such as mine, an
HP9000/835.  The HP-UX 8.00 tapes were mastered a long time ago and
not touched.  Fortunately I am someone who goes through the
Software Status Bulletin (SSB, aka Bug Report) and finds the bugs and
pro-actively got many of the patches and had them ready just before I
installed HP-UX 8.0 so that I could apply them during the update.  On
a number of them I was told that there was no patch available for me,
although the fix existed for the "newer" version of HP-UX 8.0 automagically.

>Supporting SCSI powerfail support in 8.02 was mostly reflects the
>availability of new SCSI peripherals, not any software enhancements
>other than fixing defects found when testing the new peripherals.

It wasn't just fixing bugs found during new peripheral testing...
And again, right there, you say it... These newer versions of
HP-UX 8.0 support newer hardware, but the "older" versions of HP-UX 8.0
don't and when I ask HP for the ability to use these new peripherals
I get answers like "wait until HP-UX 9.0" or the continuously oscillating
"there might be a mid-life revision of HP-UX 8.0" / "there will not be
a mid-life revision of HP-UX 8.0".

This topic is getting old.  I really do respect HP a great deal for
their system hardware and software, however, as you can probably tell :),
I am a little peeved regarding the issues of: SCSI support in HP-UX
as opposed to UNIX kernals found in other vendor's systems and this
business about the rolling in features and bug fixes into newer versions
of a version of HP-UX 8.0 I can't run.
-- 
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Michael F. Santangelo                 + Inet: mike@uc780.umd.edu
VMS / UNIX Systems                    +       mike@socrates.umd.edu
Academic Computing UMUC               + Bnet: MIKE@UC780
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp