Return to BSD News archive
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!destroyer!ncar!csn!raven!rcd From: rcd@raven.eklektix.com (Dick Dunn) Subject: Re: Controller manufacturers (was Re: Colorado Memory Systems) Message-ID: <1992Sep5.193929@eklektix.com> Summary: not all manufacturers are so tight with info Organization: eklektix - Boulder, Colorado References: <h!mn#wj.hasty@netcom.com> <147@snidely.UUCP> Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 19:39:29 GMT Lines: 37 staylor@snidely.UUCP (Scott G. Taylor) writes: ><h!mn#wj.hasty@netcom.com>, Amancio Hasty Jr wrote: >>...Also, you may add that [Colorado Memory Systems] will not release any >> technical information on their interface! > >Colorado Memory Systems people are not special in this respect. I have yet >to find a tape drive controller manufacturer who will even discuss the >programming of their tape drive controllers... I suspect this applies more (or only?) to the manufacturers of the little cassette drives. They're in a very price-competitive market; they need all the help they can get for "product differentiation". This tends to lead to uncooperative behavior. But as far as I know, the manufacturers of the larger (cartridge) drives are much better. I recall that Wangtek was not just cooperative, but help- ful, when ISC was creating a driver for the Wangtek cartridge drives. I seem to recall that there was some hassle even back then, even with ISC, getting info on one of the cassette drives. >...Do these people believe >they have God's Gift to tape drives, and to release *ANY* information >would jeopardize their niche? Incorrectly, yes, but that's what they believe. It's a pretty incredible situation with some of them...sort of like having to sign a nondisclosure agreement to get a shop manual for your car. >These companies are not in the software business... Most of them are also not in the business of dealing with end-users, and this makes your problem of getting info harder still. In fact, the way they're set up, they just don't have provisions for dealing with more than a few privileged software writers for their products. -- Dick Dunn rcd@raven.eklektix.com -or- raven!rcd Boulder, Colorado Cats!