🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug4.153445.9070@nestroy.wu-wien.ac.at> ddean@sapphire.risc.
uni-linz.ac.at (Drew Dean) writes:



>> (Sorry if this topic has been recently discussed, but it's not around here
>> anymore....)

>> I need advice about 3rd party disk vendors for a DECstation 5000.  We'll  
>> be buying one soon, and need 2 - 2.5 GB; both system & data disks.  I'm  
>> particularily interested in people's feelings about Clearpoint, Andataco,  
>> and Falcon, but I can also use other recommendations.  Positive and  
>> negative experiences both wanted.  Please email; I'll summarize (and do  
>> say if I can use your name in the summary and/or shouldn't post your  
>> comments).

>> Thanks,
>> Drew Dean
>> ddean@risc.uni-linz.ac.at
>> I don't speak for RISC.


Drew,

  I can only give you some opinions for manufacturer's of drives we've played
with here. This doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive list. And I apologize in
advance for any ommisions (it's not malice, it's senility).

  Micropolis, Seagate and Maxtor all seem to tend towards maintain vendor 
firmware variants for their drives. This can be real useful in troubleshooting
a problem. It can also be a pain if you have the wrong variant for the system
you're working on. But it's easy to check on with the vendor.

  I don't know that HP maintains vendor variants for their drives. But I have
not noticed any real problems with the standard fare either. And they have a
nice warranty policy.

  Some of the Hitachi drives have firmware that your DS5000 may have timing
issues with (the old versions of DS5000/200). These drives take more than 
600ms to respond to a SCSI bus reset (the recommendation from the ANSI SCSI-2
standard is 250ms). They were looking at offering a faster response firmware
but I don't know if they do.

  Some of the Fujitsu drives use a jumper to hard wire synchronous mode on the
drive as opposed to negotiating synchronous the way the ANSI SCSI spec says to
do it. This means that these drives won't currently work in synchronous mode 
on your DS5000. The console runs in asynch mode only and when Ultrix comes up
the drive won't negotiate synchronous.

  Of the suppliers you mention, we work quite a bit with Clearpoint. I've been
pretty impressed with the speed and friendliness of their tech support folks
in responding to inquiries. The other folks may be just as good, I've just not
had a chance to work with them.


  Mind you, all of the above is just my own ramblings from experiences I've
had and doesn't represent any kind of formal stance by either DEC or by the
TRI/ADD Program.

I hope that it helps.

				Thanx,
				  AJ


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