[Info-vax] System Programming versus Application Programming

[Paul Sture]

On 2014-02-09, Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com> wrote:
> Stephen Hoffman  <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>Your training here will be complete when you can avoid even raising an
>>eyebrow when somebody tells you that all systems and all I/O devices
>>have truly compatible ABIs, and that these boards and these devices
>>will never vary in characteristics or timing or features or status
>>codes.  Only when you can remain stoic, will you truly understand the
>>quicksand computing is built on.
>
> That's what MSCP was for!

Or at a higher level Digital Storage Architecture.  An overview of the
problems with SCSI can be found in Forward to the Digital Technical Journal
(Winter 1997/98), by Richard Lary, DIGITAL Storage Technical Director:

<http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/dtj/vol9num3/foreword.htm>

"DIGITAL’s attitude towards SCSI during this period was to ignore it and
hope it would go away.

...

We controlled the design and manufacture of all DSA components and could
thus guarantee that they all met tight architectural specifications.

...

 By 1991, it had become obvious to us that we would not be able to compete
with these systems in the long run. They were leveraging an entire
industry’s investment and talent and were reaping the cost benefits of
high-volume manufacturing; whereas we had to design and manufacture (at
relatively low volume) every component of every DSA system ourselves.

Our position was untenable. We had to change our strategy and embrace the
bus that we had so studiously ignored."

The paper by Bill Ham which the Foreword introduces can be found here:

<www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/dtj/vol9num3/vol9num3art1.pdf>

--
Paul Sture