> With several exceptions.....   The first one being that DSTAT
> ALL chops off the last character from
> the drive designation. I've had customers fail to notice the

I think it "chops off" anything after character 8; so, for example, the "D"
is lost from a ST15150WD. This doesn't make a lot of sense, because the SCSI
specification provides 16 bytes for the vendor ID information, but HP
appears to only accept half of that.

> missing character, buy the wrong drive
> from Fry's Electronics, plug it in and zzzzztttt! fry the
> SCSI card.

No properly-operating SCSI drive (or any other properly-operating SCSI
device, for that matter) can "fry" any properly-operating SCSI card (or any
other properly-operating SCSI device). Differential devices (including LVD)
which find themselves on a bus containing SE devices (as determined by
examining the state of the DIFFSENS line) disable their output drivers,
effectively disconnecting themselves (electrically) from the bus. I have
mixed all three types in various combinations at various times (usually
accidentally), and have never had a problem other than the
obvious-in-hindsight "why doesn't that drive show up?".

Steve


Steve Dirickson    [log in to unmask]
WestWin Consulting  (360) 598-6111