Cross-platform hardware [WAS:Re: NT's SFM 'services']

Dan Schwartz(expresso[at]snip.net)
Wed, 16 Dec 1998 13:21:38 -0500

        After we digressed a bit on Pixar, I'm glad to get back to "nuts and
bolts." :)

        First off, when I buy PCI cards, I put a premium on cross-platform
compatibility.

-> In this respect, I praise Asante's 10/100 NIC's because they not only
stay on top of their MacOS drivers (with their v3.1 MacOS driver that is
8.5-compliant), but also because their NIC's run on AlphaNT as well as
NT/x86. [See, I DO offer praise when it is due!]

        Unfortunately, Adaptec's offerings, quite frankly, stink. Their AHA-3985
RAID controllers are not Mac-compatible; and their AAA-13x controllers suck
up way too many CPU cycles. And even their Power Domain SCSI controllers
are quite flaky. Been there, done that.

        Initio's offerings are interesting; but sometimes their drivers can go
wacky on NT/x86. [I used one of their 9520's and had trouble with the PCI
bridge chip... It took a Dell flashBIOS upgrade to get the Initio card to
work. Fortunately, I had a machine to "bury" it in.]

 ----------

        One thing I do, amongst my (small business) customers, is swap hardware
around between sites. Since I deal with the business owners directly, I
feel comfortable, *with their consent,* swapping parts around and keeping
the dollar values about equal.

        For an example, I swapped a Sonic 10/100 PCI NIC for a 32 MB SIMM -- Both
worth about $40 -- between customers.

        Again, I place a premium on cross-platform compatibility. I'll make
exceptions for enterprise-level servers; but for run-of-the-mill
workstations & servers, being able to "shuffle" parts around -- Especially
across platforms -- is quite desirable.

        Cheers!
        Dan

At 09:53 AM 12/16/98 -0800, Liam wrote:
>>>All the extra goodies are already available for the Mac - for the few % of
>>>the market that wants them, there is plenty available.
>>
>> Hardware RAID cards?!
>
>Yup, I think there's around 3 different flavours of them. There's
>adaptec, of ourse, there the initio miles cards (which support spanning
>disks across multiple cards), and there's a few others whose names I
>don't know.
>
>Cheers,
>Liam

        Yours truly,
        Daniel L. Schwartz,
        Electrical Engineer.

        Dan's Macintosh Consulting
        Suite 1306
        1840 Frontage Road
        Cherry Hill, NJ 08034-2205

        609-795-8965

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