From: pcb@gunfight.austin.ibm.com (Peter C. Bahrs)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: >PS/2 AIX article - horror story
Keywords: IBM AIX DRIVER PS/2 RS/6000
Date: 12 Oct 92 13:46:14 GMT
Organization: *IX Open Systems, IBM Boca Raton

In article <1992Oct09.203641.23259@NeoSoft.com> wcs@NeoSoft.com (Bill Simpson) writes:
> <aknowles@expert.expert.com (Anne Knowles)> writes:
>>I write for RS/Magazine, a magazine for RS/6000 users, and I am doing a story
>>on PS/2 AIX. I would like to talk to any PS/2 AIX users out there about
>>why they are using the operating system and, for users of both PS/2 AIX and
>>AIX/6000, about the differences between the two. Please email me if
>>you have any thoughts, comments, etc. Thanks in advance for any help.
>
>I have a real horror story to tell! 
>

hmmm....I don't see anything of horrow wrt. AIX PS/2 in this story.
It seems to me like you got the driver working on the PS/2 without 
much problem.  AIX 1.3 and 3.2 are not the same animals and the numbers
do not signify any temporal relationship.  We have recognized the problem 
about having two unix's and intend to fix it.  Your ibm rep should know this.

>Dateline: Houston, TX, June 1990
>    We know the RS/6000 is coming, but can't get one. We
>    need to write a device driver for a special interface.
>    IBM rep suggests we first write the driver on the PS/2
>    under AIX ('the Microchannel busses are the same' NOT),
>    and then a quick port to the RS/6000. So we do it.
>
>Dateline: Houston, TX, July 1990
>    We get an RS/6000 model 320. Guess what, no quick port.
>    All the kernel services have changed (names - to protect
>    the innocent I guess, and calling parameters). No hardcopy
>    manuals are available, so we have to eek thru the 'info'
>    system. The configuration system (methods, odm, etc...) is 
>    totally new and unique. Anyway, we get through the port, and the
>    DMA won't work (it did on the PS/2). Had to contact IBM
>    in Finland to get any support, they finally found someone at
>    IBM in Austin who knew that the MCA bus was different.
>    The RS/6000 MCA does not support "slave DMA selection by I/O
>    address (other than zero)", a common PS/2 mode. The board
>    doesn't support any other mode (whoops!). Time to design a
>    new board. Just because a MCA board works in a PS/2 doesn't
>    mean it will work in the RS/6000.
>
>Dateline: October 1990
>    New board designed with Chips and Technology MCA bus interface
>    chip that supports RS/6000 modes. But can't get production
>    parts.
>
>Dateline: January 1991
>    Port the device driver to the new board. Big rewrite of
>    the actual device driver, and major rewrite of configuration
>    programs since the board architectures are so different.
>    Finally, got it working.
>
>Dateline: February 1992
>    AIX 3.2 is out and our customers need it supported by our
>    device driver. Recompile, install, and hard crash. Seems that
>    the BUS_ID (the magic number that allows us to talk to the 
>    MCA bus) was correct in the AIX3.1.x odm database, but wrong
>    in AIX 3.2 and caused a hard kernel crash. Fixed that problem.
>
>Dateline: September 1992
>    RS/6000 model 220 is out with 'new and improved' MCA bus.
>    High speed modes, etc. Guess what? Our driver works but
>    at a snail pace! Some improvement. Turns out the 'DMA
>    fairness enable' doesn't work, so turn it off and don't
>    be fair, and everything works fine now. For how long?
>
>PS/2 AIX and RS/6000 AIX are two different animals, and not
>even remotely related!!! The best I can tell is that nobody
>is running AIX on the PS/2. 
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>Bill Simpson                         713/561-7797
>Interface Consultants                713/561-0634 Fax
>15326 Bonita Springs Drive           Internet: wcs@neosoft.com
>Houston, TX 77083                    Compuserve: 76600,1577
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>