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From: west@bnrmtv.UUCP (Andrew West)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: DataFrame changes
Message-ID: <750@bnrmtv.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Sep-86 19:01:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: bnrmtv.750
Posted: Tue Sep 30 19:01:49 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 3-Oct-86 08:56:49 EDT
References: <724@bnrmtv.UUCP> <336@zen.BERKELEY.EDU>
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> In article <724@bnrmtv.UUCP> west@bnrmtv.UUCP (Andrew West) writes:
> 
> >2)  The software included with the drive is out of beta and is
> >    and official release.
> 
> This I'm almost sure is jumping the gun a bit.  We've JUST gotten Beta
> 1.4 of the Print Spooler (which seems to work w/out problems), and
> version 1.5 of the Initializer.  They should have released
> versions of the Spooler and backup software in a week or two though
> (and since their drives are back ordered by 3 weeks, all the software
> included with drives ordered from now forward might ship with the
> official release).
> 
> >3)  The "XP upgrade", for $99 for the first month or so (Oct) and
> >    $200 thereafter consists of an added ROM chip which helps out
> >    the SCSI driver routines to speed everything up (the rumor I
> >    originally heard was that the DF ROM cleaned up some sloppy
> >    firmare in Apple's SCSI driver)
> 
> I've also heard rumors about buffering and so forth.  To answer the
> XP upgrade question in another posting, yes, the drive WILL require
> reformatting (unless my SuperMac contact lies...).  There's been
> some delay w/the XP, b/c SuperMac thought they would have to support
> Apple's File Tags.  But, after seeing Apple's SCSI (anyone played
> with that yet, btw?), they decided they didn't have to.
> 
> Peter "Mr. SuperMac" Korn
> -----						  

I called SuperMac again and asked them about the XP and the software
changes.  They claim that the XP upgrade will be out by mid-Oct and that
the software *is* out of beta (by the way Peter, I have the same version
of the Initializer as you, but my Spooler is 3.0d.  I have version .81Beta
of the Backup program) and, besides being included with all new drives,
can be obtained at dealers by the end of the week (Oct 3rd).

Incidentally, the people I talked to at SuperMac claim that the XP upgrade
does *not* require drive reformating or even hardware mods to the
DataFrame itself--just the ROM board inside the Mac.  It should make
the Mac about two times as fast during Mac<->HD exchanges.

I also asked them about a program by FWB (of "HD Utilities" fame) software
called "HardDisk Partitions" which they claim works fine with the
DataFrame.  I am really interested in this program as a way to mount MFS
volumes (or at least HFS volumes with everthing in the root level) so that
I can run programs which either don't work with HFS or just require that
all files be at root level.  It would be a nicer way of using these
programs when I want to than always leaving them on the desktop or
constantly moving them in and out of folders.  Has anybody had any
experience with this program yet or heard anything good or bad from anbody
who has used it?

					Andy