Third party products

From: anonymous

- Most SCSI disk drives work (IBM resells Maxtor, tested Wren 6&7 myself);
  use osdisk when configuring (other SCSI disk).

- Exabyte: Unfortunately only the ones IBM sells are working.
  A few other tape drives will work; 
  use ostape when configuring (other SCSI tape).

- STK 3480 "Summit": Works with Microcode Version 5.2b


From: bell@hops.larc.nasa.gov (John Bell)
               
In summary, third party tape drives work fine with the RS/6000 unless 
you want to boot from them. This is because IBM drives have 'extended 
tape marks', which IBM claims are needed because the standard marks 
between files stored on the 8mm tape are unreliable. These extended 
marks are used when building boot tapes, so when the RS/6000 boots, it 
searches for an IBM tape drive and refuses to boot without it.

From: jrogers@wang.com (John Rogers)

On booting with non-IBM SCSI tape drives: I haven't tried it myself but
someone offered:

Turn machine on with key in secure position.
Wait until LED shows 200 and 8mm tape has stopped loading.
Turn key to service position.


From: amelcuk@gibbs.clarku.edu (Andrew Mel'cuk)

The IBM DAT is cheap and works.  If you get all the patches beforehand
(U407435, U410140) and remember to buy special "Media Recognition
System" tapes (Maxell, available from APS 800.443.4461 or IBM #21F8758)
the drive can even be a pleasure to use.  You can also flip a DIP switch
on the drive to enable using any computer grade DAT tapes (read the
hardware service manual).

Other DAT drives also work.  I have tried the Archive Python (works) and
experimented extensively with the Archive TurboDAT.  The TurboDAT is a
very fast compression unit, is not finicky with tapes and doesn't
require the many patches that the IBM 7206 does.  Works fine with the
base AIX 3.2 'ost' driver.


From: pack@acd.ucar.edu (Daniel Packman)

>>You can boot off of several different brands of non-IBM Exabytes.
>>At least TTI and Contemporary Cybernetics have done rather complete
>>jobs of emulating genuine IBM products.

A model that has worked for us from early AIX 3.1 through 3.2 is a TTI
CTS 8210.  This is the old low density drive.  The newer 8510 is dual
density (2.2gig and 5gig).  Twelve dip switches on the back control the
SCSI address and set up the emulation mode.  These drives have a very
useful set of lights for read-outs (eg, soft error rate, tape remaining,
tape motion, etc.).

I got a flyer from Nordisk Computer Services (Portland 503-598-0111, 
Seattle 206-242-7777).  Some sample prices:

      16 MB Upgrade Kit   $  990
      32 MB Upgrade Kit   $1,700
      64 MB Upgrade Kit   $3,300

5xx machines have 8 memory slots, 3x0s have 2, and 3x5s have only one.
You need to add memory in pairs for the 5xx machines.

Models 220, 230 and 250 can use "PS/2" style SIMM memory.  All have 8
SIMM sockets.  60ns or better is needed for the 250, 70ns should be OK
in the 220 and 230.  The 220 and 230 are limited to 64MB of memory,
the 250 is limited to 256MB.

From: anonymous
       
IBM RISC System/6000 Interface Products

National Instruments Corporation markets a family of instrumentation
interface products for the IBM RISC System/6000 workstation family.  The
interface family consists of three products that give the RISC
System/6000 connectivity to the standards of VMEbus, VXIbus and GPIB. 
For more information, contact National Instruments Corporation,
512-794-0100 or 1-800-433-3488.

Several C++ compilers are available. You can choose from Glockenspiel,
Greenhills, IBM's xlC (sold seperatly :), and GNU's g++. Glockenspiel
may now be part of Computer Associates. Comeau Computing
(718-945-0009) offers Comeau C++ 3.0 with Templates. For a full
development environment there's ObjectCenter's C++ (formerly Saber
C++).

IBM's xlC comes with a product called the HeapView debugger that can
trace memory problems in C and C++ code.

SENTINEL has full memory access debugging capabilities including detection 
of memory leaks.  Contact info@vti.com (800) 296-3000 (703) 430-9247.

Insight from ParaSoft (818) 792-9941.
There is also a debug_malloc posted in one of the comp.sources groups.

From: dad@adonis.az05.bull.com (Dave Dennerline)
  Purify from Pure software (408) 720-1600.
  TestCenter from Centerline (800) 669-2687.
Purify and TestCenter are not availible for the RS/6000 :(

PPP does not come with AIX 3.2.x (only SLIP) and there isn't a version
availible for anonymous ftp.  PPP for AIX is availible for $ from
Morningstar (sales@morningstar.com or marketing@morningstar.com) (800)
558-7872.

Abstract Technologies Inc. (Austin TX, 512-441-4040, info@abstract.com)
has several high performance graphics adapters for the RS/6000.
1600x1200, 24-bit true-color, and low cost 1024x768 adapters are
available.  Retail prices are between US$1000-2000.