From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: Adaptec AHA-1542B and large SCSI questions
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 22:29:03 GMT

In <1hvj14INNf7s@neuro.usc.edu> merlin@neuro.usc.edu (merlin) writes:

>>Hmmm.  I have two people from Adaptec who disagree about this, and you
>>think YOU know better what ADAPTEC did?  

>On my desk in my office right now in front of me is a PC with an
>Adaptec 1542B controller with the 3.20 ROM BIOS upgrade and a 1.2
>gigabyte SCSI hard disk -- there is only one hard disk controller
>and only one hard disk in the box -- it boots and runs OS/2 2.0,
>OS/2 2.1b, SCO UNIX SYSV/386 3.2r2.0, SCO ODT 1.1, MS-DOS, and it
>supports (via an ASPI4DOS CONFIG.SYS driver upgrade from Adaptec
>public switched telephone network BBS download) Windows-3.0/MSDOS
>and Windows-3.1/MSDOS.  Oh, by the way, it also works fine under
>the 386BSD-0.1 BSD 4.3 UNIX internet online SCSI driver upgrade.

>Frankly, I don't think my data is really being reliably written
>to, stored, and retrieved from some 'virtual disk' made out of
>thin air.  I really really hope my operating systems & code are
>resident on some actual real physical concrete hard disk drive.

>Then again, maybe the guys at Adaptec know better about what is
>happening inside of my system.  Where do they think I'm keeping
>four partitions of operating system, application code and data?
>Maybe the bits are hiding in my uninterruptable power supply --
>or maybe they are being cached away on my video display screen?

Well, frankly the preceding tells me that you're just some arrogant
little snot who probably doesn't know what he's talking about.  Now
then, as I'm sure someone of your obvious omniscience is aware, 1.2G
drives typically format out at UNDER 1G -- in other words, there isn't
any frigging difference.  Now then, perhaps you'd like to explain just
how it is that all those known-nothings at Adaptec managed to produce
this miracle on your system without anyone having the slightest clue
about what the hell is going on with THE STUFF THEY DESIGN AND BUILD? 

>>Personally, I'd like to get my information from someone who KNOWS the
>>correct answer; not someone who asserts that their answer must be
>>correct just BECAUSE.

>We are not talking guesswork by some technical support geek at the
>Adaptec Technical Support hotline -- we're talking about the actual
>physical real material hard core system sitting right in front of
>me every day of the week.  None of these drivers are broken -- none
>of these configurations give me any errors in normal system ops or
>under intensive disk diagnostic software exercises.  I am not just
>saying it works "just BECAUSE" -- I have actually used the Adaptec
>1542B controlled extensively in each of the configurations named.

That's right, we're not.  We're talking about a Senior Engineer.
Obviously too stupid to tie his own shoes.  I didn't notice what title
the guy here carried, if any, but he, too, wasn't "some technical
support geek at the Adaptec Technical Support hotline".  Hell, maybe
you just got lucky.  Maybe the Senior Engineer who told me otherwise
is mistaken.  Maybe you're a lying sack of arrogant shit.  No way to
tell from here.  Frankly, given this little snit, I wouldn't trust you
to tell me that the sky was blue.

>Maybe the guys at Adaptec tech support haven't even seen OS/2 2.0,
>OS/2 2.0 + CSD, or OS/2 2.1 beta??  Who knows?  In any case, just
>relying on the hardware translation of disk geometry works fine in
>each of my configurations -- and I don't understand why it should 
>not work just fine for anyone else with similar operating systems.

I wouldn't know what Adaptec tech support thinks.  Go back and read
the thread again, dipshit.  Then don't get back to me.  I still want
to hear what the folks who are designing, building, and selling the
stuff say about whether it will work or not.

-- 
"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.os.os2.misc