HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: goyal@utdallas.edu (MOHIT K GOYAL)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Intel's new PCI archictecture
Date: 23 Dec 92 00:58:36 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Texas at Dallas

Well, with the "is EISA or VL-Bus better" pretty much becoming a FAQ, I will
add a new twist.

I just read that Intel is going licence its new PCI architecture to hardware
manufactures for *free*!

I know that a few, very few, are going to start coming out in January, but
I'm wondering how much this might help.

I'm under the impression that Intel is the only company who can make the
PCI chipset.  Anyone know when a clone might be out?  (Isn't it true that
only in the 2nd half of 1992 did a "cheap" EISA clone come out?)

All I know about PCI is that it will be 32-bits wide and run at 33mhz.

I don't know how it is layed out, if it is backward compatible, if it is
simply "EISA at 33mhz" (in terms of features).

EISA at 33mhz will be nice.

I wonder how it will perform in 50mhz 486's, and 66 & 100mhz 586's.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: waardenb@cs.utwente.nl (Jerry van Waardenberg)
Subject: Re: The maxtor 213 meg drive is NOT 213 megs!
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 10:50:58 GMT

In article <4c20VB1w165w@tsoft.net>, bbs.haymore@tsoft.net (Ed Haymore) writes:
|> sct@beta.lanl.gov (Stephen Tenbrink) writes:
|> 
|> > I believe that disk manufacters do list the "unformatted" capacity of their
|> > drives.  I'm not exactly sure how they come up with the value but it is
|> > always a larger value than the formatted value and marketeers being what
|> > they are will always give you the biggest number they can, even if it is
|> > bogus.
|> 
|> It probably is the "unformatted" capacity.  Don't forget that (especially 
|> on the floppy disks) there's a fair amount of overhead for each sector of 
|> actual data -- sector headers, gaps to allow time for the drive head to 
|> shift into write mode after reading the sector ID, and (on floppies at 
|> least) bytes to allow the PLL oscillator to sync up as well as long gaps 
|> to allow for differences in drive speed.
|> 
|> Don't know why there's such a large difference with the larger drives -- 
|> I know just enough to be dangerous.
|> 
|> -- Ed
|> bbs.haymore@tsoft.net
|> 
|> --
|> Ed Haymore (bbs.haymore@tsoft.net)

There's another possibility: Some drives 'lose' bytes when using sector
translation. For example: My Seagate ST1239a is supposed to have 211 MB when I
don't use the translation mode. However, to keep the number of cylinders within
DOS's 1024 limit, I have to use sector translation. As a result of that, I only
get 202 MB. So 9 MB is waisted!

Most manufacturers do *not* refer to unformatted capacity. For example, the
Seagate ST2120a is listed as 106 MB drive, but has 120 MB *unformatted* capacity.
Likewise the ST3144 (listed: 130 MB) is 144 MB unformatted. I suppose the Maxtor
has an unformatted capacity of approx. 240 Meg's.

BTW: Someone mentioned that 1 MB = 1024 * 1024 bytes. I think this is discutable.
Should 1 MB be 1024 kB or 1000 kB. After all Mega = 1000 * kilo. I've even seen
calculations on network throughput that used 1 kB = 1000 Bytes... Should we use
the 'power of two' convention all the way up to Giga and Tera? The difference
between a 'ordinary' Tera and a 'power of two' Tera is quite large! (If my
calculations are correct: 1*10e12 vs. ~1.0995*10e12, almost 100 Gig's difference!)

Greetz,

Jerry

*-----------------------------------------------------*------------------------*
Jerry van Waardenberg                    *        *  /|\        *      *   TIOS
Tele Informatics and Open Systems             *     //|o\    Merry Xmas
Department of Computer Science          *      *   /o/|\\\   and    *        *
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands    ///|\o\   A Great '93!
E-mail: waardenb@cs.utwente.nl                  *____/ \____   *         *
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: william@natimuk.acci.com.au (William W. Lo)
Subject: Adding a third IDE HD, possible? (Was: Re: Should WD Caviar 2200 be noisy?)
Organization: IBM Australia/ACCI 
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 03:58:57 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.121542.10850@zip.eecs.umich.edu> joy@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Chien-Chung Chen) writes:
>In article <By0725.5M1@cs.uiuc.edu> tgao@cs.uiuc.edu (Tong Gao) writes:
>>I just bought a new Western Digital Caviar 2200(212mb) hard drive. It makes
>>big noise when the head is moving comparing with my old Western Digital 2100.
>>Also, when I use Norton Utility to check the disk, I found initially I can
>>hear some (week) sound coming out of disk. After half of the disk is checked,
>>the sound disappears. Since I do not know anything about this drive, could
>>somebody tell me if all these things should happen with this drive? Also, in
>>general, is this a good drive? Thank you very much.
>
>When I ordered my PC, it came with a Maxtor 7213A (213mb). Later I returned
>it because of the stability problem and got a WD 2200. WD 2200 is a very
>fast HD, in terms of both seek time and transfer rate. Yes, it's a little
>bit loud when the head switches track. But overall I'm satisfied with it
>now that I'm used to the sound it makes.

	Yeah, I have a WD Caviar(170mb), too. Looks like it's pretty fast,  
but it's very noisy :-( By the way, does anyone know why a 170mb drive could  
have a faster average seek time than a 210mb one(I've checked WD's ad)???
Isn't that amazing?

	Also I'm going to add a third IDE HD to my 486dx33 ISA machine, is 
that possible? I now already have two IDE HDs(80mb & 170mb) on it(and needless
to say they've taken up the 2 HD connectors on my IDE controller). So, my 
question is, do I just buy a new IDE controller for my third HD, or have 
to give up one of my old drives??? That really stumps me! Any ideas? I wonder
if some kind soul out there could help me on that? 

---Thanks,
	Bill
### Welcome to William's Huggie Dictionary ###
TCB: /T-C-B/ [IBM Buzzword] n. 1. Trouble Came Back. An intermittent 
   or difficult-to-reproduce problem that has failed to respond to 
   neglect.  Compare {heisenbug}.  Not to be confused with:
   2. Trusted Computing Base, an 'official' jargon term from the
   {Orange Book}. 

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: mlaiho@dshp.ntc.nokia.com (mikko laiho)
Subject: Need jumper info for Rodime RO3259T
Organization: Nokia Telecommunications
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 08:50:01 GMT

I have got a second hand 200MB Rodime SCSI disk of type 'RO3259T type E1',
but no documentation. If you have got information about the jumper settings
of the drive please email it to me (or post here, I have had some email 
problems recently).

Thanks in advance for help.

--Mikko

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: What size is my Drive??
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 21:38:51 GMT

In <255@heimdall.sdrc.com> drkerns@sony7.sdrc.com (sean kerns) writes:

>When I run PC Tools' Diskfix.exe, it is again identidfied as a 130 Mb drive.
>When I select the Revitalize a Disk option for ths drive, it goes through a bunch 
>of calculations. One of the things it tries to do is to calculate and set the
>optimum interleave for me, but it comes back with a message saying that 
>this drive uses "sector translation, and reports a size which does not match its
>physical configuration". 

>What's the deal? Is the drive set up wrong in CMOS? Is this an IDE thing?
>Why does PC Tools think it's 130Mb and can I fix that somehow? Is it not 
>possible to set the interleave on these drives for some reason?

It's an IDE thing.  Don't mess with it.  Without having the
appropriate software and knowing what the sector translation scheme
is, you can royally hose your drive.

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: delusion@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Albert Schmezer)
Subject: Re: Packard Bell Experiences?
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 19:04:29 GMT

	The other major problem with P-Bells is that if you want to upgrade
the motherboard, unless you buy a P-Bell motherboard, you have to get  new
case, new parallel & serial ports, new FD & HD controller, and new power
supply as well. If you don't get the new case, you'll have all those nasty
holes where the serial & parallel (& game) ports that were built on to the
motherboard stuck out. I have a Force I (286) P-Bell, that I really want to
upgrade, and now I have this problem. Oh, well....

<<delusion
--
const Hell_Freezes_Over = false;   	| This Program Has Been Brought To You
begin					|       By the Society of
	While Hell_Freezes_Over do	|  Programming and Egg Scrambling
	Writeln('I am using windows');	| -Eggs are only eggs if Egg=True; 
end.					| -If it's a BASIC Egg, it ain't!
					| Mail to: Eggs@Frob.The.Egg.Egu
Organization: Alphabetical
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 17:44:05 EST
From: Jeff Siegel <JXS118@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Gateway 486 simm configurations

Gateway is selling their 486 systems with 8 meg of ram. The salesperson
claims that the machines are shipped with two 4 Meg simms. Now given that
a simm is 8 data bits and a parity bit, does this mean that the
micronics motherboards gateway is using use only 16-bit access to the
main memory? I always thought that simms had to be added in multiples of 4
to have a 32-bit wide main memory.

I know a person who bought one of these systems with 8 Meg of Ram.
Windows 3.1 won't let him turn on the "32-bit disk access" option. Is
this related?

Jeff Siegel
From: louis@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca (Louis Schmittroth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Why memory costs doubled
Date: 29 Dec 92 01:45:33 GMT

gisie@wam.umd.edu (Satan) writes:

>In article <BzzID0.1zC@fc.hp.com> chuckc@fc.hp.com (Chuck Cairns) writes:
||Joe Trott (joet@dcatlas.dot.gov) wrote:
||: phillip@kiwi.gen.nz (Phillip Hardy) writes:
||: 
||: |noel@reg.triumf.ca (NOEL) writes:
||: |: 	I am still peaved that RAM prices have doubled overnight seamingly
||: certain business interests found it easier to complain than to compete.
||: Granted, the Koreans were "dumping" at below cost, but people who are not                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

|Interesting note - the Japanese have been doing this for years.  They
|will enter a market, dump products below cost until all of the
|competition goes under trying to keep up, then they have the consumer
|by the proverbial jewels...

|They dont see this practice as wrong, as it is life in Japan...
|Business is war and what is wrong to some (USA) its how its done
|in another place (Japan)...

I would say it has been, and continues to be part of the Japanese
national strategy:

In 1857, when the competition between Japan and the United States began,
the shogun's adviser, Masayoshi Hotta, observed:

	I am therefore convinced that our policy should be to stake
	everything on the present opportunity, to conclude friendly
	alliances, to send ships to foreign countries everywhere and
	conduct trade, to copy the foreigners where they are at their
	best and so repair our own shortcomings, to foster our national
	strength and complete our armaments, and so gradually subject
	the foreigners to our influence until in the end all the
	countries of the world know the blessings of perfect tranquility
	and our hegemony is acknowledged throughout the world.

This is quoted on page 113 in "Trading Places,"  by Clyde Prestowitz, a
must read for anyone interested in the US -- Japan trade deficit, and
the resulting colonizing of America by the Japanese.  

So you could say that Japan has had at least a 135 year plan.  After
Hirohito came to power in the 1920s, the Imperial Army and Navy became
the chosen instrument of world domination, and the pathway was China.
The proponents of economic dominance lost out, for a while.  What WWII
really taught Japan was that they could not succeed with armaments, as
apparently planned by the shogun's adviser in 1857.  They tried.

When the occupation ended in the early 1950s, and MITI was formed, the
strategy was to use trade to establish the hegemony.  They have almost
succeeded where the Imperial Army and Navy failed.

To sum up my view of Japan vs the US since WWII:

The Japanese have had a nationa *economic* strategy, but no military
strategy.

The US has had a military strategy but no economic strategy.

Who is becoming an economic colony of whom?
--
Louis Schmittroth louis@cs.athabascau.ca
NW 1/4 18 67 21 W4 Alberta.
From: matthias@nsr.hp.com (Matthias Kamm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: The Death of x86 Arch. ?
Date: 30 Dec 1992 18:31:13 GMT
Organization: Hewlett Packard Santa Clara Site
NNTP-Posting-Host: hpmvd069.nsr.hp.com
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1.2 PL7]

Colonel Panic (aland@informix.com) wrote:
: 
: Eh?  You're expecting to run your x86 DOS 5.0 executables on an Alpha
: machine running NT?   What else did you ask Santa for this year?
: 
: --
You must not read the paper.  How could microsoft position NT as the
next generation, compatible OS (after DOS/Windows) if x86 executables
wouldn't run on it?  The whole point of NT is that microsoft is moving
away from Intel dependance, and making the OS hardware platform
independant.  

By the way, I also asked Santa for a playoff spot for the Wash. Redskins
and got it!

Matthias
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Iskandar Taib)
Subject: Re: I'm sick of off-white computers!
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 06:28:44 GMT

In article <1992Dec20.05 Kibo 0034.2869@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> chiu@alumni.berkeley.edu writes:

>To this day, I still can't figure out why no one has made some PC casing
>resembling NeXT CUBE... (GAD, THE CUBE is a piece of ART! I wouldn't mind
>having an enclosure like that for my PC...)


Ha!!!!!!!!!

Ever see the Everex Step Cube? Its about the size of a coffee 
table! Bigger than any NexT!





-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iskandar Taib                          | The only thing worse than Peach ala
Internet: NTAIB@SILVER.UCS.INDIANA.EDU |    Frog is Frog ala Peach
Bitnet:   NTAIB@IUBACS                 !
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: sdawalt@cs.wright.edu (Shane Dawalt)
Subject: Re: SCSI hard drive question
Organization: Wright State University
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 21:24:50 GMT

From article <CARL.92Dec30101312@atlantis.Cayman.COM>, by carl@Cayman.COM (Carl Heinzl):

[ stuff deleted]

> 
> If they had a single SCSI controller
> that handled their disks, CDRom, Tape drive, etc they would have more
> open slots in their machine.
> 

  I am in the market for a new computer and with my pending move
to UNIX I have been considering the purchasing of a SCSI
controller and, of course, drives.  It is my understanding that a
couple years ago, SCSI controllers were provided that only
allowed Hard drives (CDRoms and Tape drives could not be used).
I found that rather stupid since SCSI is a standard ... so why
cripple a SCSI controller with only part of the standard?
I also found that newer controllers are not limited to HDs only.
Now you can place CDRoms and/or a tape drive or two on the bus.
I have seen some SCSI controllers advertised in JDR MicroDevices
that provide 2 or 4 floppy drive ports as well as a 16-bit SCSI bus.

  My only problem now is to figure out what are the differences
between SCSI-2 and SCSI, which is better for a PC running UNIX (386BSD),
and what controllers are available and widely supported by the
SCSI device manufacturers.

  Shane();

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the keyboard of:			     email: sdawalt@cs.wright.edu
	Shane A. Dawalt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rassilon@infopls.chi.il.us (Michael Quintero)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: CYRIX/AMD/C&T 386/486    
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 09:31:56 CST
X-Maildoor: WaflineMail 1.00r


Does anyone know AMD, C&T, and Cyrix's email and/or snail mail
addresses?  I'd appreciate it.

Also, does anyone know anything about AMD's plans for its 486
clone?  Will it be 386-pinout compatible?  Will it have a
built-in coprocessor?  Internal cache?  Clock-doubling?

Cyrix- Will they have a clock-doubling CPU?  When is the
486DLC-40 coming out?  What's the average price w/coprocessor?
Are there any updated BIOS' with support for the Cyrix
Cache-o'-Plenty(tm).

General opinions about 386 to 486DLC conversion.

Thanks.
___
 * MR/2 1.36 NR * Michael Quintero ( rassilon@infopls.chi.il.us )
                                          
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: stmfarqu@atlas.cs.upei.ca (Michael J. Farquharson)
Subject: What disks work with 2.88 MB drives???
Organization: University of Prince Edward Island
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 00:41:31 GMT

One quick question... I'm sorry if it's been asked before:

What type of media will the new 2.88 MB floppy drives work with?  Are they
compatible with regular 1.44 MB disks?  Thanks a lot.

Please E-mail me as I do not read this group often.

                                                        stmfarqu@upei.ca
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: peter@wiesel.cosy.sbg.ac.at (Peter Burgstaller)
Subject: Thrustmaster
Organization: University of Salzburg / Austria
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 14:10:21 GMT

Hi folks!
I'm from europe and I'd like to know what are the
costs of a complete Thrustmaster set (Joystik, paddles ...)
and where I could probably get it?

- Peter 8*)
--
/--------------------------------------------------------\
| Peter Burgstaller| Student of Computerscience		 |
| (peter@cosy.sbg.ac.at)| in Salzburg, Austria (Europe)	 |
| "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" (Douglas Adams) |
\--------------------------------------------------------/
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: mdoerner@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Mike R Doerner)
Subject: D.A.T. Tape Breakage
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 03:29:40 GMT

	My friend works at a construction firm that uses AutoCAD and saves
it's drawings to the network server during the course of the day. Later
that evening they are backed up on a D.A.T. tape and kept on file in case
someone needs an old drawing or a revision needs to be made. Well, today
one of his D.A.T. tapes broke with several important drawings on it. He
went to radio shack and got a tape splicing kit and repaired the tape.
When he went back to retrieve the drawings, the software told him that
there were too many bad sectors, and the tape was unuseable. He was
wondering if there is any way to retrieve ANY of this data or is it
completely lost? There is about one Gig of data on the tape, and only
about a half inch missing, and a foot crinkled. Thank You.
-- 
Mike Doerner | doerner.1@osu.edu | mdoerner@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
          You can't hug you children with nuclear arms,
              but you can sure keep 'em warm!!!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: sheldon@iastate.edu (Steve Sheldon)
Subject: Re: Best 16-17" 1280x1024 NI monitor?
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 20:29:46 GMT

In <EBROWN.92Dec22134338@bud_light.kodak.com> ebrown@bud_light.kodak.com (Eric Brown) writes:

>What is the best 16" or 17" 1280x1024 NI monitor?
>I'm currently considering the Mag 17" and Viewsonic 17",
>but heard that Nanno is pretty good. Any suggestions?


IMHO:

 NEC 5FG if you can afford it.

 Next Nanao F550

 Then Viewsonic 7

 I'm not certain about the Mag's, I've heard too many mixed reports
about their equipment.

 We have about 6 NEC 5FG monitors here and we absolutely love them.
We do mostly what you'd consider CAD work with them, and use them under
SCO OpenDesktop.
-- 
sheldon@iastate.edu                Steve Sheldon
Project Vincent                    ICSS Resource Unit
SCO ODT, Arc/Info, Atlas GIS       2142 Agronomy Hall
                                   Iowa State University
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
From: sdorsey@eng.umd.edu (Bill Dorsey)
Subject: Help w/ WD1007A
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 92 20:24:07 GMT
Organization: Project GLUE, University of Maryland, College Park

I got some new hardware for my PC for Christmas this morning.  An ESDI
hard drive and a controller card for it.  The hardware is used, and
unfortunately didn't come with any instruction manuals.

Since the card came with cables, it wasn't hard to figure out how to
connect it to the drive (Pin 1 is clearly marked), and the floppy.  The
system now boots up and recognizes the floppy drive just fine.  But I'm
getting nowhere with the hard drive.

There are a multitude of configuration jumpers present on the board.  I've
played around with a few of them, in the hopes of activating the on-board
ROM so I can run the hard drive setup utility which should be present there.
No luck so far.

If anyone has the manual for one of these cards, or knows how to set one
up, I'd appreciate any pointers you might be able to provide.  Shooting in
the dark for hours on end as I've been doing so far gets frustrating real
fast...  I think all I need to know is how to activate the ROM present on
the card and the address of the setup utility in the ROM so I can execute
it from the debug utility.

Happy Holidays.

sdorsey@eng.umd.edu
From: 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Tax Write-Off Anyone... Donate Hardware to Non-Profit
Date: 3 Jan 93 02:53:55 GMT
Distribution: comp

I consult for an environmentally-oriented non-profit concerned
with preservation of a large tract of southern California land.
Given the state of our state's economy, donorship is down for
non-profits in our neck of the woods. Anyone out there in the
position to help out with a donation of used computer hardware
(software also considered). Specific needs include the following
(but are not limited to them! e-mail me to determine interest):

	IDE hard disk drives (preferably Maxtor; sizes 40-240 megs)
	386SX system(s)
	386DX 25-40 MHz motherboards
	monitors (mono VGA or color, interlaced or standard VGA
		are fine)

Anyone interested in making donations, please feel free to e-mail
me at the address below. Accepted donations could be sent COD.
Proper statements for tax purposes can be given. Thanks in advance.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
William W. (Boo) Bushing  |  "Life is too important to be
6500boo@ucsbuxa.bitnet    |       taken seriously"
6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu  | 
bushing@lifesci.ucsb.edu  |            - Einstein
Marine Biotechnology Lab   Univ. of Calif. Santa Barbara
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Organization: Valencia Uiversity (Universitat de Valencia) SPAIN
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 16:24:51 EST
From: <LOPEZJ@EVALUN11.BITNET>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Help with Calpak Modem

Hi all.
     I reciently buy a Calpak modem, internal MX-2496 (USA) and I
am installing it in 486 computer in COM 3 and IRQ4. But I have many
problems. I can ring and connect but then the modem hang up, and I
have to switch off the computer to desconnect the phone. Please
answer this questions:
   -Which is the initialize string? (I am in Spain)
   -Could be a conflict with the mouse?
   -Why not desconnect the line?
                          Thanks you very much.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware