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From: jmonroy@netcom.com (Jesus Monroy Jr)
Subject: QIC NEWS and NOTES vol.1 no.6
Message-ID: <jmonroyC9BFI3.I1M@netcom.com>
Keywords: QIC FDC
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1993 05:06:02 GMT
Lines: 554
Released
+----------------------------------------+
QQQQQQ II CCCCCC
QQ QQ II CC N E W S and N O T E S
QQ QQ II CC for 386bsd-Linux-Mach-OS/2
QQ QQ II CC (and sometimes minix & coherent)
QQQQQQ II CCCCCC Vol.1 no.6
QQ (r)
Quarter Inch Cartridge (Tape Drives)
+----------------------------------------+
News about QIC-40/80
From the desk of the quasi-editor-in-chief:
"Just because I am numbering these things don't get the idea
that I am going to do any more of these".
(Disclaimers move to bottom.. getting to big.) (crowd:YEAH!!)
Thanks:
Will Crawford, Wolfhound Computer Service, for the editorial critique
and his comments the "QIC NEWS" redesign.
Jennifer Gordon for making this publication what I can only
attempt in a rogue manner.
*=======================================*
| Tabloid Contents |
*=======================================*
| <1>__ Hey! What happened? |
| <2>__ Standards, Standards, Defacto |
| <3>__ Will We Ever See ... |
| <O>__ One OS at a Time |
| <M>__ Meaningless Dribble. |
| <F>__ FLAMES to the Editor |
| <N>__ NEXT ISSUE |
*=======================================*
Hint: search for "<?>__"
<1>__ Hey! What Happened?
Some people believe that QIC NEWS has strayed
from what it should be, namely; a "qic news" posting. I will
agree with their comments. I have allowed things to get
out of hand. The articles that talk discuss designs will
be issued in separate postings.
In addition, to meet with the demand for more conciseness,
our format will change. The new appearance will say more about
OSs, other than 386BSD. We will continue to respond in the
nature which seems to provoke forethought to OS development.
As We Near Launch Date
----------------------
The design articles mentioned will be general, as well
as specific to FDC, QIC and device drivers. Since we also
hope to communicate with the OS/2 group, we will also be adding
some *BM-type ideas (innocent-by-stander: gasp!).
In addition, the need for a working RTC (Real Time
Clock) will facilitate better functionality in the design. To
this, there will be a third newsletter that talks about this.
However, it will NOT be posted like QIC NEWS. The discussions
will take place on comp.realtime, comp.periphs, and
comp.os.386bsd.development. Again, no other OS groups will be
involved in these cross-postings. (Peanut Gallery: Whoopie!!!
YEAH!!!! A sudden spontaneous "wave" is formed by the crowd!).
The subsection "What Everyone is Doing" has been moved
back another issue. Sorry, including this would be wasting too
much bandwidth. :)
As always, any comments are welcome.
BOODLES WUZ HERE IN `93!!!
<2>__ Standards, Standards, Defacto
WHY?
----
Some of these are the design issues of the future,
like maybe next year? (Who knows WHAT the time frame is ?!?)
FDC: What is the standard?
--------------------------
If you read a dozen data guides like I have you might
might draw a conclusion that the NEC microPD765a,
^^^^^
(Please excuse me while I flatulate.) |||
|||
[We need the that *BM character set from 128-255, it does not
pass the mail packages. Will somebody fix this _or_ let me
know what I am doing wrong, please! Gheez]
(Thank you)
OK.... The NEC microPD765a was the defacto standard
for many years. But with the mass entrance of laptop and
palmtops, a need for less power consumption was needed. Today
all the companies involved in manufacturing the FDC chip
make a slightly different version, which makes it a pain in
the patch. (Any EEs listening,,,, I think not!)
QIC: Who's idea was this?
-------------------------
I have no evidence to support this, but, I am sure
someone out there has the answer, to me it looks like Maynard.
Beep. If, (hopefully) by now, you have gone over the QIC
specs, namely QIC-117, you can see that Maynard developed the
Common Command Set.
I spoke directly with Mr. McDonald of Archive/Maynard
and from a small piece of evidence I drew the conclusion that
they were the inventors of QIC-40. (BTW, his first name is
Ronald)
How did I draw this conclusion?
There is a small spelling error on pg.12, section #10
of the QIC-117; it says PDC, it should say FDC.
(You should fix this now, other corrections coming later.)
How did everybody else miss it?
Maybe they reverse engineered their versions and
that's why the CMS drive does dumb things.
If you want to know what's dumb? Ask me!
ISA: Why are we using this?
---------------------------
This is still the defacto standard.
Want more information?
Ask me, I will include it in another issue.
EISA: More of the same?
-----------------------
I don't know much about this bus standard, except
it is 32-bits. I know a few people with experience in this,
but it is not widely accepted, yet.
The major reasons for indecisions on its implementation
include: price, slow bus speed (clock) and physically being
oversized at the card-edge connector.
The card-edge becomes a major faster because of
implementations like PCMCIA 2.0 (Personal Computer Memory Card
International Association[1]). PCMCIA 2.0 is closer to the AT
bus standard than the original PCMCIA 1.0. This standard
makes it possible to supplement the PC with the same freedom
we now have in the current Desktop/Workstation situations.
(Owww.... CD-ROM on a plamtop.)
If you want more info on the PCMCIA let me know.
VESA: Is this an improvement?
-----------------------------
I can not give you much information on this either.
(Heckler: Boy this guy is dumb!) I missed the conference the
VESA organization gave in San Jose earlier this year. However,
(I always have one don't I) there is information that the bus
can support a high clock speed of about 50Mhz. (WOW!)
What does this mean?
Drawing on my own speculations, I might say that REAL
high speed transfers might be possible. Applying this to like
video; could put the PC in the same market as SGI workstations
(gasp!).
Am I reading tea leaves again?
You tell me.
What about MCA?
---------------
WHAT ABOUT IT? (Oops, bad grammer again.)
MCA seemed to have lots of pluses from the beginning,
but (always a but, huh!) in comparison with PCMCIA 2.0 we
don't have to consider this as a candidate for more than a few
years. (Now, watch the flames from the OS/2 group.)
[1] PC World; Feb. 1992, vol.10,no.2
"Dealing a New Standard--Take Any Card"
- John H. Mayer
<3>__ Will we ever see some code from the editor for the tape drive?
YES and NO. YES you will see examples of my code, but
because of this will be a group effort it may be buried along
with the efforts of others.
How soon will we see some then?
-------------------------------
I can not tell you. I do not intend on pushing the
group. If you would like to see the drivers work, e-mail the
parties local to you. Otherwise, It may be a wait; and you
really don't want to hear me ramble on anymore ....do you?
Beep.
jmonroy@netcom.com Jesus Monroy Jr. - quasi-self-appointed
dbrown@ucsd.edu Dave Brown - Linux/Mach386 coordinator
khk@raster.Kodak.COM Karl Heinz - LINUX coordinator
hoppie@kub.nl Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers - OS/2
Any more mindless thoughts?
---------------------------
Oh, Yeah. The FDC (Floppy Drive Controller) driver is
still in beta(s).
Julian Elischer - beta coordinator is the sole
arbitrator and judge on the completion of the FDC project.
Don't like the release date? Ask him to change it.
He is at:
julian@jules.dialix.oz.au
subject: [FDC beta]
<O>__ One OS at a Time.
NOTE: This Section will now be included in future issues of
QIC NEWS.
Coherent --
===========
about the people
----------------
In order to be fair to all the people in the Coherent
newsgroup I am going to state the obvious.
Their goal is to learn about *NIX and have some
support mechanism that can be counted on. This niche is Mr.
Williams great success. Coherent does have some rather foul
points, according to the traditionals, but overall it is good.
Some people think that the people using Coherent are
blind and fools, not so. Many of these people are highly
intelligent, what they intend is to *use* *NIX and not program
it. A somewhat reasonable request.
So I am going to do something not regularly done.
The Coherent Group, which paid for their version of *NIX,
does deserve some consideration. This is my belief, but....
QIC-40/80 & Coherent
--------------------
mail messina@netcom.com
Re: Subject: Is driver for Colorado done?
>> Some time ago Bob (?) mentioned that MWC was
>> working on drivers for the Colorado jumbo floppy
>> tape. Does anyone know if that project has
>> been brought to fruition yet?
From: jay@RSLAP.MWC.COM (Jay Alter)
Subject: Re: Is driver for Colorado done?
Date: 13 Apr 93 14:43:19 GMT
Organization: Mark Williams Company
>> Neither the Colorado or Archive floppy tape drivers
>> that we are working is completed. We will let
>> people know when they are available.
>>
From: pechter@OCPT.CCUR.COM (Bill Pechter)
Subject: Re: Is driver for Colorado done?
Date: 13 Apr 93 16:22:37 GMT
>> Any word on SCSI tape or QIC02 (besides the Archive
>> QIC36?
>>
From: klfowler@SDF.LONESTAR.ORG (Ken Fowler)
Subject: Re: Is driver for Colorado done?
Date: 16 Apr 93 04:09:00 GMT
>> Waiting with baited breath for ability to use my
>> Colorado tape under Coherent.
>> (In case you weren't sure anybody cared.)
>>
why this article.
-----------------
By the request of others, based on the fact that
Coherent is a commercial product, and it is a *NIX-type:
I will no longer be crossposting to comp.os.coherent.
I will only post messages as to the availability
of QIC NEWS and I will not post QIC NEWS itself.
my pledge.
==========
Here is my pledge to you. If you decide you would
that you can not wait for MWC to produce a driver, I will buy
a copy of Coherent (gasp!) and write a driver for you.
To refresh you memory, a typical QIC-40/80 tape drive
is about $250-$500. The software, if commercial, might be
about $100-$500 (maybe free with enough numbers).
Have a nice day.
<M>__ Meaningless dribble.
Scene in a LINUX Group
======================
"HEY! QUICK, Peter, COME HERE!"
"WHAAAAT?!?"
"He promised to leave the Coherent group alone!"
"Noooooooooooo!!!?!"
"Do you think he might do the same for Linux?"
(The suspense builds..... stay tuned for the NEXT convention.)
Scene from a BSD Group
======================
High Priest 2. -- "The infidel taunts us again!"
High Priest 1. -- "Yes! The time has come that we be rid of
this one, once and for all!!"
Other High Priest -- "Do you mean?"
High Priest 1. -- "Yes, It is time."
(Other H.P. gather...)
The SuperDude Wizard speaks -- "The Voodoo doll"
Chorus -- "Ugh!"
The SuperDude Wizard -- "We shall recount the words
of the ancients."
Chorus -- "The world as we know it; can only use
5 of these computers things."
(Suddenly, a High Priestess enters the shrine.
She glance at each, in turn.
The crowd grows restless.
The Priestess delights as all join her invitation to an orgy.)
Scene from a MINIX Group
========================
"What is a High Priest?"
"Yeah, Maybe we should get in on this?"
"It does sound good."
Scene from a MACH Group
=======================
"This guys on drugs, I can tell."
wanabe - "Are you buying or selling?"
Scene from a OS/2 Group
=======================
"Boy! These *NIX guys are weird!"
"I told you so."
"BTW, I heard Bill's new wife likes this *NIX stuff."
"Noooo."
<F>__ FLAMES to the editor.
(NO, NO, NO, NOT the WIMP) woop's mispelt whip.
====================================================
From: Francis Bell <cc_s525@kingston.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1993 11:23:11 +0100 (BST)
To: jmonroy@netcom.com
Subject: Re: HANG THE ENGINEER -- tort of consequences
Organization: Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames
In article <jmonroyC5tpz5.3BF@netcom.com> you write:
>
>
> If the bridge falls down, Hang The Bastard.
>
Exactly.
Why is this not taught in Software Engineering courses:
If the software crashes, shoot the Programmer.
I always wondered why Software Engineering, which dignifies
itself by use of the word Engineering, would fail to apply
the criterion applied to all other Engineering disciplines:
Does It Work ?
A bridge which falls down once is not considered acceptable,
yet an operating system which crashes once is considered
near-perfect, and one which crashes many times a year is
considered good...
====================================================
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
I am not alone, praise be.
(Oops, I must not invoke the rath of the High Priests.)
I am not alone!
Thanks for your comments
jmonroy@netcom.com
====================================================
From: bram@fangorn.hacktic.nl
Subject: Subject: Re: QIC NEWS vol.1 no.3
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1:07:00 93 GMT 1
Organization: Fangorn Systems
jmonroy@netcom.com (Jesus Monroy Jr) writes:
> If you need no. 1 & 2, let me know.
I've got 2, but not 1 (probably came out before I had
net.access), so If you'd send that one, too, I've got the
collection complete....
Now all I need is a tapedrive :-)
Bram 'mouser' Smits bram@fangorn.hacktic.nl
B2 stealt .sig ...
If you can read this, I've just wasted $50 billion
====================================================
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Ahh.. another satisfied customer!
Thanks for your comments
jmonroy@netcom.com
====================================================
mail tdean@lookout.mtt.it.uswc.uswest.com
Re: Subject: Re: Subject: Re: Subject: ......
>> > >> > What real world?
>> > >> >
>> > >> Hmmm, Good Point! How about the Totally Unreal World?
>> > >> Nah, TUW is a terrible acronym. This would be the
>> > >> Unreal World where a marketing type drops you into 50k
>> > >> lines of unmaintainable spegetti code and wants it
>> > >> fixed without really understanding what the need that
>> > >> the system is supposed to address. That is a
>> > >> developers first miracle.
>> > >>
>> > hahahaahahhahaha...woowoo wooowooo.....
>> > I am saving this for the QIC NEWS... CAN I?
>> >
>> sure. My first project was to convert a Commodities package
>> from MainFrame Basic to MS Basic. 30 modules, Spigetti code,
>> one page of documentation. A year later, 8 years ago, I
>> switched to C and haven't missed BASIC at all. :-)
>>
====================================================
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Ahh.. yet another satisfied customer!
Thanks for your comments
jmonroy@netcom.com
====================================================
mail cproto@cs.curtin.edu.au
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 12:42:39 +0800
Subject: Re: Flowchart symbols (in ASCII) ISO-1028
>> In comp.os.386bsd.development you write:
>> >
>> >
>>
>> EAT YOUR OWN GARBAGE!
>>
====================================================
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
This is good. We've got you up to four words now.
That now, doubles your sentence content and
adds 4 new words. A couple of months of this and
we may have you speaking a language!
Thanks for your comments
jmonroy@netcom.com
====================================================
mail Donald.Lindsay@GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU
Re: Subject: Re: Subject: Re: QIC NEWS Vol.1 Special ...
>> >> Welcome to my kill file.
>> >>
>> > What is a "kill file"?
>>
>> Most Usenet-reading programs (and some email-reading
>> programs) offer KILL abilities. Effectively, any Usenet
>> posting by you is silently filtered out, and I'm not even
>> notified when that happens.
>>
====================================================
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
WOW... can I get some more info on this?
Thanks for your comments
jmonroy@netcom.com
====================================================
___________________________________________________________________________
<N>__ NEXT ISSUE
o.... Other Documentation problems.
o.... Question, Questions
o.... What everyone is doing!
====================================================
"QIC" is a registered trademark of the
Quarter-Inch Cartridge Drive Standards, Inc. (QIC).
This publication is not affiliated with "QIC" or "QIC DATA NEWS".
UNIX is a trademark of USL, a division of Novell (last I heard).
IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines.
(What is a baby IBM called? There's MA BELL.. Hmm)
All comments, issues, and errors are only attributable
to the quasi-editor-in-chief.
___________________________________________________________________________
Jesus Monroy Jr jmonroy@netcom.com
/386BSD/device-drivers /fd /qic /clock /documentation
___________________________________________________________________________