Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!sgiblab!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uknet!EU.net!Germany.EU.net!pophh!melrose.crew.de!ron From: ron@melrose.crew.de (Heye Fulda) Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.setup,comp.periphs.scsi,alt.cd-rom Subject: Re: Adaptec flame - was Re: ARGH! DTC 3270 SCSI controller SLOW in OS/2! Date: 13 Mar 1994 21:22:03 GMT Organization: Point of Presence Hamburg GmbH Lines: 45 Message-ID: <2m005r$2hb@popeye.Hamburg.Germany.EU.net> References: <2lnhta$b23@hrz-ws11.hrz.uni-kassel.de> <2ls5d7$3v0@dearg.cuillin.org.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: melrose.crew.de Keywords: slow scsi OS/2 CD-ROM Toshiba XM-3401TA Xref: cdrom.com comp.os.os2.setup:2805 comp.periphs.scsi:2268 alt.cd-rom:1668 guy@dearg.cuillin.org.uk (Guy Dawson) writes: >In article , dunnc@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (Colin J. Dunn) writes: >|> [stuff deleted about German magazine testing SCSI controllers] >|> >|> I returned that DTC controller and got an Adaptec 1522 instead. So far, >|> the Adaptec has worked beautifully in OS/2 and in MS-DOS. And it should >|> work in Linux, too (unlike the DTC, which I have read has a proprietary >|> programming interface and thus cannot be supported by freely distributed >|> device drivers with source code). >|> >|> I think I'm beginning to see why Adaptec has a near-monopoly on PC SCSI >|> cards... >Wait until you look to get an EISA system. Adaptec's new 2742 EISA card >has a new programming interface (different to the 1742A) and the specs >are only available under a non disclosure agrement. I guess my 1542C is >the last Adaptec card I'll be buying... >I expect their VL Bus and PCI bus cards will also be afflicted by NDAs. Well, but how does this affect writing a device driver for it ? First, Adaptec is (In my opinion) very fast in writing drivers for OSes (Novell Netware, OS/2, DOS, Windows, SCO Unix etc.) and doing even some additional stuff, like the VASPI.SYS which deliveres ASPI support to DOS boxes (and BootImages, too) under OS/2, which is a great thing, I think. Second, it is not that difficult to get all the information and sources you need to write a device driver. A friend of mine decided to write a 2742T device driver for NeXT Step/Intel, 'cause NeXT only supports the 154x and Adaptec seems to be busy with writing drivers for the 174x right now. Well, I don't know, who he talked to exactly, but he did have some programming information within a week and more stuff is on the way (we're in germany). That seems fast and resposive to me. Hendrik std.disclaimer: No links to Adaptec, but that being a satisfied customer of their products (aha1542A, aha1542B, aha2742T ;-)