*BSD News Article 18342


Return to BSD News archive

Xref: sserve comp.os.linux:47820 comp.os.386bsd.questions:3782 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:60148 comp.windows.x.i386unix:2495
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!caen!usenet.coe.montana.edu!bsd.coe.montana.edu!nate
From: nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu (Nate Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.windows.x.i386unix
Subject: Re: SUMMARY: 486DX2/66 for Unix conclusions (fairly long)
Date: 13 Jul 1993 16:18:30 GMT
Organization: Montana State University
Lines: 64
Message-ID: <21un8m$qmc@pdq.coe.montana.edu>
References: <1993Jul12.122937.20476@taylor.uucp> <hastyCA2CCK.L9E@netcom.com> <21srqe$25t@sylvester.cc.utexas.edu> <1993Jul13.154658.10146@alw.nih.gov>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bsd.coe.montana.edu

In article <1993Jul13.154658.10146@alw.nih.gov> crtb@helix.nih.gov (Chuck Bacon) writes:
>In article <21srqe$25t@sylvester.cc.utexas.edu> vax@sylvester.cc.utexas.edu (Vax) writes:

[ SCSI vs. IDE wars ]

>>4)    It's easy to get SCSI devices over the net because it's not an
>>ugly IBM/Intel/ISA-ism.  I.E. It's a standard in the real sense that
>>it's used more than most other PC interfaces(**).
>
>What's really worried me about SCSI interfaces for 386bsd, is that I've
>seen discussed on comp.os.386bsd.*, only *ONE* brand name, with only
>*ONE* model, and even there, there are difficulties in the choice of
>the A or B model suffix.


Hmm, let's see.

Adaptec 1540[B/C]
Adaptec 1542[B/C]
Adaptec 1740[B/C]
Adaptec 1742[B/C]
Bustek 742a
Ultrastor 14F (and I think the 24F as well recently)

And many other drives emulate the Adaptec's, so I'd say that Adaptec SCSI
is *the* SCSI standard, and as such anything that emulates it will
get you by.

>In the IDE world there are Quantum, Conner,
>Maxtor, and a host of others, delivering a commodity.  And they all
>seem to work.  At least I haven't heard any queries about this or
>that IDE drive not working with 386bsd.

Nope, there have been problems with some VLB IDE controllers, but those
are usually hardware problems.  The deal with IDE, is that it is a standard
as well (similar to Adaptec)

>I expected to have problems with my serial and parallel ports, since
>my IDE disks, floppies, two serial and one parallel port, are all
>run out of one ASIC!  The part numbers visible on the board give me
>no clue (nor does the manual) as to whether the serial ports have a
>FIFO, nor whether the parallel port implements bidirectional data;
>but the HD and FD interfaces seem to work.  And I've just rebuilt
>the kernel after having good success using the GENERICISA.

Welcome to PC-clone heaven (NOT!)


Bottom line is, you get what you pay for.  If you want workstation
performance, you need to spend a little bit on the hardware.  If
you don't care, and want to run cheaply and as a single user, then
go cheap.  However, "If you want to run a Real-Man's Operating System",
you really need "a Real-Man's hardware" to do it. :-)



Nate


-- 
nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu     |  In the middle of it ........ again. 
nate@cs.montana.edu          |  Running/supporting of many freely available 
work #: (406) 994-4836       |  Operating Systems for [34]86 machines.
home #: (406) 586-0579       |  (based on Net/2, name changes all the time :-)