From: US2RMC::"SUPPORT-L@acornsw.com,munroe@DMC.COM" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 26-SEP-1995 14:46:06.63 To: LAMBERTUS@CMD.COM CC: SUPPORT-L@ACORNSW.COM, MILLER@CMD.COM, STASIAK@CMD.COM, CMYALO@CMD.COM, cmyalo@cerf.net, munroe@DMC.COM Subj: Timeout issues between the Hawk and the Pioneer 5004X... Well, I've got another one for you. We have a customer wanting to put a Pioneer 5004X onto a Hawk. The 5004X is operational with Virtual Branches (we have a site in Denmark that is running) and, from a SCSI standpoint, is identical to the Pioneer 1804X with one exception... With a fully populated box, operations like Initialize Element Status can take up to 45 minutes (we typically assume 50 minutes) to complete. We ran into this when we configured the system at Winchester Systems (the contact point there is Jerry Infantino, 800.325.3700, F: 617.933.6174). The Hawk pass through worked, we were able to send SCSI commands and receive data in respose. VB works (as well as it is able under these circumstances) until we issued the initialize element status. Then, we sit for about 10 minutes and the Hawk appears to abort the I/O request from the VAX. The 5004X continues with the initialize element status operation since the Hawk, apparently, can't abort the operation in progress on the 5004X. We have seen this set of symptoms before on native mode scsi busses when we have picked bad values for the SCSI timeouts for disconnect/reconnect. As a consequence I'm assuming that you have a similar problem with the Hawk. Bottom line, we have a bunch of orders for 5004Xs that we can't sell your gear with. From a technical standpoint, I see two solutions, one short term, and one long term. Short term, provide a version of the Hawk firmware for this specific sale that has a ridiculously long (3000 seconds) timeout period. I'm sure that Winchester will not have a problem supporting a quick fix while waiting for something more permanent. Long term, let applications using pass through specify the timeouts they want to use PER SCSI COMMAND. This should be straightforward as the pass through interface to the Hawk (trident, cdi 400, etc) is modelled on the pass through interface presented by GKDRIVER. In the GKDRIVER interface, there are fields for phase and disconnect timeouts all you have to do is start using them in the same way. We will be more than glad to support this change as soon as it could be made. Please let us know ASAP as to the short and long term resolution. Dick Munroe cc: Peter Cmyalo Jerry Infantino Robert Infantino Dick Miller Mike Stasiak -- Dick Munroe Internet: munroe@acornsw.com Acorn Software, Inc. 267 Cox St. Office: (508) 568-1618 x16 Hudson, Ma. 01749 USA FAX: (508) 562-1133 % ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ====== % Received: from mail1.digital.com by us2rmc.zko.dec.com (5.65/rmc-22feb94) id AA03019; Tue, 26 Sep 95 12:58:13 -040 % Received: from WOEFUL.ACORNSW.COM by mail1.digital.com; (5.65 EXP 4/12/95 for V3.2/1.0/WV) id AA05720; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 09:36:38 -070 % X-Listname: Acorn Support Mailing List % Warnings-To: <> % Errors-To: owner-support-l@acornsw.com % Sender: owner-support-l@acornsw.com % Received: from dmc.com by acornsw.com (MX V4.1 VAX) with SMTP; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 12:36:28 ES % Received: by DMC.COM (MX V4.0-1 VAX) id 15; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 12:36:12 EDT % Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 12:36:11 EDT % From: munroe@DMC.COM % Reply-To: SUPPORT-L@acornsw.com, munroe@DMC.COM % To: LAMBERTUS@CMD.COM % Cc: SUPPORT-L@ACORNSW.COM, MILLER@CMD.COM, STASIAK@CMD.COM, CMYALO@CMD.COM, cmyalo@cerf.net, munroe@DMC.CO % Message-Id: <00996F95.20A466CC.15@DMC.COM> % Subject: Timeout issues between the Hawk and the Pioneer 5004X...