From: evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch)
Subject: Re: No EISA support SVR4.2
Organization: Somewhere just far enough out of Toronto
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 04:58:18 GMT

In article <C184oH.BDD@maxed.amg.com> ed@maxed.amg.com (Ed Whittemore) writes:

>>As I've mentioned previously, we are fairly happy with our Consensys SVR4.2.
>>However yesterday I recieved a rude shock. While on the telephone to
>>Consensys support I found out that it does not support the Adaptec 1742 EISA
>>SCSI controller!

Serves you right for calling Consensys support :-).

>>We want to run a SVR4.2 system because of the file system and other
>>enhancements. Should we wait for Univel, if it has EISA support? 

>it seems EISA SCSI will have to wait
>until USL releases 4.2.2

Sez who?

According to every Univel compatability list I've seen (including ones
produced before its release), support for EISA host adapters is
explicitly provided for UNIX V4.2 --- *by the vendor of the host board*.

This is the case for not only the Adaptec 1742, but also EISA host
adaptors made by Buslogic, Eclipse, Future Domain, Procomp, UtraStor
and Znyx. In total, 13 different models of EISA SCSI boards list
current availability of 4.2 drivers from their manufacturers.

A growing trend -- that I welcome -- is to put the support for
third-party hardware drivers in the hands of the hardware maker, not the
Unix vendor. This allows the driver to be as up-to-date as the hardware,
and put control of its development in the hands of the people most
intimately familiar with the hardware. It also relieves the Unix vendor
from having to track all the boardmakers out there, leaving them to
concentrate on the Unix propser rather than external drivers.

This has worked for years with the makers of intelligent serial boards.
You don't buy anyone's UNIX expecting it to have built-in drivers for
Digiboards or Equinox. IMO, in the interest of keeping bloat to a
minimum, basic UNIX should come with a minimum of hardware drivers
and let the rest ship with the peripherals.

Part of the problem (to the person buying R4) is that most hardware
companies who have done drivers for UNIX have done SCO versions and
stopped there. This appears to be changing, as Univel has aggressively
been going after IHV support (and its 62-page compatability guide
reflects this). Consensys and other 4.2 releases should generally be able
to piggyback on this increased availability of 4.2 hardware drivers.

>4.2.2 is supposed to have a fixed X servers, a new device driver
>interface to support EISA SCSI, dev. system fixes, etc.

Given a choice, I'll take the Adaptec-supplied 1742 driver over the USL
one, thank you.

>PPc will be offering shortly, their HyperX 4.2 server product that 
>supports many SVGA and accelerated graphics cards such as ATI's Ultra
>series, new and old, the #9 GXe, etc., at a list of about $200. PPc is
>at 412 231 3000. There are also cards from Actix, CSS, Diamond, ELSA,
>Genoa, Mylex, Orchid, Pixelworks, STB, more.

PPc stands for Pittsburgh Powercomputing, a company I still can't seem
to get any info on (they certainly don't appear to be on the net). The
Univel compatability guide lists three vendors of third-party X servers
for high-speed/high-resolution graphics.

- Pittsburgh Powecomputing
- MetroLink
- SGCS

I've seen ads for MetroLink and SGCS, nothing from our friends in
Steel City.

>It ALWAYS happens that people want the latest and greatest and then get
>burned by the bugs and deficiencies.

Naah. We let people like Larry Snyder jump on the various bandwagons,
and just wait until he stops falling off.

-- 
 Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software Ltd., located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
         evan@telly.on.ca / uunet!utzoo!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504
What's with all this multimedia stuff? Most vendors can't get *one* done right.
Newsgroups: comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,biz.sco.general,comp.unix.sys5.r3,comp.unix.sysv386