[plug] SCSI card question

[Nick Bannon]

On Thu, Aug 05, 1999 at 08:31:51AM +0800, Chris Griffin wrote:
> I do not know why, but for some reason I thought it was a bootable SCAI 
> card but it turned out not to be. I got it from www.compuware.com.au $75.

Ah... yes, that's the minor downfall of the bottom end ones - to be
bootable, you'd either need a DC390, or a motherboard BIOS with Symbios
SCSI support. Many Award BIOSes do, and it was very common a little
while ago (my Pentium from 1996 has it), but I'm not seeing it on the
ticklist of features of as many motherboards these days... ::-/

> Had I known all of this I would have got the $110 AdvanceTech? bootable one 
> from PLE.

Advansys? They're very nice. Pretty much feature for feature identical
to Adaptecs, for half the price, and with a tradition of official company
support for Linux, AFAICS.

> Where do you get the NCR one from and how much?
> The info you sent, one of the drivers, SYM53c8XX, would that happen to mean 
> it uses the Symbios chip. The TekRam uses the symbios chips.

They're the same chip - I believe Symbios bought out NCR. I'm sure
there were other acquisitions and partial acquisitions about the place,
but they're hard to keep track of. ::-) If it says 53c8XX, there isn't
much doubt.

Nick.

-- 
  Nick Bannon  | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick at it.net.au | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal