> I think part of the problem is that people are expecting the latest cards
> to be supported in older platforms.....2940s are supported on LX,SX and
> EV6 machines, but will Compaq do another build of SRM for PWS, what about
> AS200s? Multia?
That's a good point. I have several multias (166 & 233's) that still run
RH 5.2 and use ARC and MILO. They do what they are supposed to, and thus
I generally don't mess with them. They are old enough that I figured long
ago there wouldn't be any more devlepment on them. When they die I will
replace them with something else.
OTH have a PC164 (mind you that isn't that new I know), which has been a
bear, running under 6.2 and MILO was great with the adapters I had.
Upgrading to SRM was a nightmare. It just seems that if the abandoned
firmware was able to run an adpater correctly, why can't the "still being
used" firmware do the same thing ?
List of adapters that I'm sure we'd like to see run would include the
adaptec 2940, not because of performance, but because there are so many
examples of those cards around. I'd also like to see SRM support almost
ANY pci video card. Not to trying to troll here, but I shoved a brand new
voodoo into my 7 year old pentium 75, and voila I had video. So far about
1 in 2 video cards have worked for me in the PC-164(suprise, el-cheapo
cards work, high end cards usually fail :( ) EVERY card works in this OLD
AT&T P75 that hasn't EVER had a bios update since I bought it 7 years ago.
Can the code to strobe the PCI bus and recgonise a video adapter be that
difficult? Even with PAL?
I think we can make a business case to Compaq as follows
+Every increase in the "ease of use" provides another selling
point for your sales force. The ability for any platform to
adapt to commonly found hardware is a bonus.
+The ability to add almost any commonly used PC hardware to a
system greatly increases the likely hood that the system will get
used later in it's life. This increases the installed user base.
+Since alpha are more expensive to start with the ability for
systems to have a longer "usefull life" becomes the lynch pin
from a cost anaylsis point of view. This means that systems
would need firware that is updated regularly so that these systems
can use newer components.
Just rambling, but perhaps Compaq could keep this in mind for future
renditions of SRM. IMHO Compaq will find more alpha adopters if it's
easier to install and run AXP-Linux.
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------/
\ Aaron Gee AKA Spdracer /
\"Maseratis are more than cars, they are a passion that is understood /
\by some, but enjoyed by a very few" /
\URL---> http://www.italian-cars.com /
\e-mail--> spdracer@america.com Fax-->1 (904) 446 1186 /
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