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From: rjn@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Bob Niland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Mixed 700/300 clusters and local disks
Message-ID: <7370405@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM>
Date: 1 Jun 91 15:59:27 GMT
References: <1991May28.190640.5789@sunee.waterloo.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard/FSY Ft.Collins,CO,USA
Lines: 41

re: Series 700 I/O support...

> Will HP supply the same programming support for HP-IB on the 700 that is
> available on the 300, 400 and 800?  We absolutely require HP-IB for our
> instrument control and data acquisition.

By this do you refer to "dil", the Device I/O Library?

> Will HP-IB disks ever be supported?

Probably not officially, but the CS/80 driver ported for use with the 9144A
and 9145A cartridge tape drives reportedly works with "many" CS/80 disk
drives.  SS/80 disks I don't yet know about.  I'm also not sure about the
status of CS/80 'mediainit' on s700.

> Will HP-IB 9-track tape ever be supported?
> Will HP-IB DAT ever be supported?

Probably not.  These two share the "tape1" serial HP-IB (not CS/80) driver,
which as far as I know has not been ported to the 700.  There are plans to
support SCSI 9-track drives (7979S/80S/80SX), and upgrade kits exist to
convert HP-IB 7979A/80A/80XC drives to SCSI.

> Will HP-IB CD-ROM ever be supported?

The C1707A HP-IB CD-ROM drive is a very well behaved CS/80 device, closely
emulating the 7935H.  It probably works with the existing 700 CS/80 driver.

> The local sales and "technical" office is no help.

To date, the Series 700 program has lacked the kind of detailed support
matrix that I maintain for the Series 300 and 400.  Management has just
(91/05/31) asked me to create a 700 matrix, so I will soon be finding and
driving answers to the questions above, and as many others as I can think
of.  I plan to create the matrix using HP-TAG (our internal SGML), and make
the matrix a standard part of the monthly LaserROM documentation CD.  PCL
download versions will also be made available via ftp to our field people.

Regards,                                              Hewlett-Packard
Bob Niland      Internet: rjn@FC.HP.COM               3404 East Harmony Road
                UUCP: [hplabs|hpfcse]!hpfcrjn!rjn     Ft Collins CO 80525-9599