Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!encore!pinocchio!terryk
From: terryk@pinocchio.Encore.COM (Terence Kelleher)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs
Subject: Re: 3rd party scsi drives
Keywords: SCSI, HP, disk drives
Message-ID: <5903@xenna.Encore.COM>
Date: 11 Apr 89 16:43:58 GMT
References: <580@babbage.acc.virginia.edu> <2824@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Sender: news@Encore.COM
Reply-To: terryk@pinocchio.UUCP (Terence Kelleher)
Distribution: na
Organization: Encore Computer Corp, Marlboro, MA
Lines: 35

In article <2824@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> mic@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Mic Lacey) writes:
>Is there a good
>reason why SCSI drives are sooooo expensive when you buy them from the same
>company you are buying your workstation from?  And why do I hear horror
>stories about third party SCSI drives being used on various workstations
>(esp. Sun), isn't SCSI supose to be a standard?
>
>		-Mic

The basic reason why computer and workstaion manufacturers charge a
bundle for disks is because they are also in the buisness of
supporting them also and have to make it worth their effort.  If I
sell a disk to go on the system I sold and the disk has problems, I
have to replace or fix it.  I am also trying to work of the costs of
my enginee ring investment every time I sell anything.  Joe's discount
disk outlet has no investment in engineering and if your disk has
problems will provide you with the address of a manufacturers repair
depot. 

SCSI is quite standard if vendors use the Common Command set, and most
disk vendors do.  The computer nmanufacturers however, may cut corners
in the host side support by making assumptions about drives and not
using the CCS commands to their fullest.  One example is where you
have a geometry table coded into the machine and on open have to
specify  to the driver the type of drive you are using.  The
information is readily available from the drives, but is not being
used.  The driver is probably a migration from an ESDI driver and
carries a lot of overhead from then.



Terry Kelleher, Encore Computer
Phone: 508-460-0500
UUCP: {bu-cs,decvax,necntc,talcott}!encore!terryk
Internet: terryk%pinocchio@multimax.ARPA