Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: I'm ordering a 2090A
Message-ID: <5003@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 16 Oct 88 21:07:00 GMT
References: <910@hub.ucsb.edu>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Distribution: na
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 25

In article <910@hub.ucsb.edu> hbo@sbphy.ucsb.edu (Howard B. Owen) writes:
>On the other hand, if I had waited
>(and waited) for the A209A and 1.3 (let me add a few "and waiteds" for that
>last item), I would have had a lovely suprise when I tried to get my ST251
>to boot from power-up. Of course, the failure to boot ST506 drives is entirely
>due to Seagate's "long latency" period. As if vanilla PCs hadn't been
>autobooting off the same drive hardware for years. Given CBM's long history of
>"support" for their products, I wouldn't put it at the top of my list of
>reasons to buy their hardware.

	The problem only exists, I think, with the SCSI versions of
Seagate drives.  You see, when a SCSI Seagate is powered up, it reads
the code for handling SCSI commands OFF THE DRIVE.  This takes some
while (up to 20-25 seconds).  Until that time, there is NO way to know
the drive exists.

	Note that PC's have NOT been booting off Seagate SCSI's, but off
Seagate st506's.  The 2090a CAN (I'm fairly certain, but it's not my job)
boot off an ST-506 Seagate.

	Also note that we're still not totally satisfied with the 2090
software, and may well make improvements in the future.  Fear not.

-- 
Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup