1The BusLogic FlashPoint SCSI Host Adapters are now fully supported on Linux. 2The upgrade program described below has been officially terminated effective 331 March 1997 since it is no longer needed. 4 5 6 7 MYLEX INTRODUCES LINUX OPERATING SYSTEM SUPPORT FOR ITS 8 BUSLOGIC FLASHPOINT LINE OF SCSI HOST ADAPTERS 9 10 11FREMONT, CA, -- October 8, 1996 -- Mylex Corporation has expanded Linux 12operating system support to its BusLogic brand of FlashPoint Ultra SCSI 13host adapters. All of BusLogic's other SCSI host adapters, including the 14MultiMaster line, currently support the Linux operating system. Linux 15drivers and information will be available on October 15th at 16http://sourceforge.net/projects/dandelion/. 17 18"Mylex is committed to supporting the Linux community," says Peter Shambora, 19vice president of marketing for Mylex. "We have supported Linux driver 20development and provided technical support for our host adapters for several 21years, and are pleased to now make our FlashPoint products available to this 22user base." 23 24The Linux Operating System 25 26Linux is a freely-distributed implementation of UNIX for Intel x86, Sun 27SPARC, SGI MIPS, Motorola 68k, Digital Alpha AXP and Motorola PowerPC 28machines. It supports a wide range of software, including the X Window 29System, Emacs, and TCP/IP networking. Further information is available at 30http://www.linux.org and http://www.ssc.com/. 31 32FlashPoint Host Adapters 33 34The FlashPoint family of Ultra SCSI host adapters, designed for workstation 35and file server environments, are available in narrow, wide, dual channel, 36and dual channel wide versions. These adapters feature SeqEngine 37automation technology, which minimizes SCSI command overhead and reduces 38the number of interrupts generated to the CPU. 39 40About Mylex 41 42Mylex Corporation (NASDAQ/NM SYMBOL: MYLX), founded in 1983, is a leading 43producer of RAID technology and network management products. The company 44produces high performance disk array (RAID) controllers, and complementary 45computer products for network servers, mass storage systems, workstations 46and system boards. Through its wide range of RAID controllers and its 47BusLogic line of Ultra SCSI host adapter products, Mylex provides enabling 48intelligent I/O technologies that increase network management control, 49enhance CPU utilization, optimize I/O performance, and ensure data security 50and availability. Products are sold globally through a network of OEMs, 51major distributors, VARs, and system integrators. Mylex Corporation is 52headquartered at 34551 Ardenwood Blvd., Fremont, CA. 53 54 #### 55 56Contact: 57 58Peter Shambora 59Vice President of Marketing 60Mylex Corp. 61510/796-6100 62peters@mylex.com 63 64 ANNOUNCEMENT 65 BusLogic FlashPoint LT/BT-948 Upgrade Program 66 1 February 1996 67 68 ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT 69 BusLogic FlashPoint LW/BT-958 Upgrade Program 70 14 June 1996 71 72Ever since its introduction last October, the BusLogic FlashPoint LT has 73been problematic for members of the Linux community, in that no Linux 74drivers have been available for this new Ultra SCSI product. Despite its 75officially being positioned as a desktop workstation product, and not being 76particularly well suited for a high performance multitasking operating 77system like Linux, the FlashPoint LT has been touted by computer system 78vendors as the latest thing, and has been sold even on many of their high 79end systems, to the exclusion of the older MultiMaster products. This has 80caused grief for many people who inadvertently purchased a system expecting 81that all BusLogic SCSI Host Adapters were supported by Linux, only to 82discover that the FlashPoint was not supported and would not be for quite 83some time, if ever. 84 85After this problem was identified, BusLogic contacted its major OEM 86customers to make sure the BT-946C/956C MultiMaster cards would still be 87made available, and that Linux users who mistakenly ordered systems with 88the FlashPoint would be able to upgrade to the BT-946C. While this helped 89many purchasers of new systems, it was only a partial solution to the 90overall problem of FlashPoint support for Linux users. It did nothing to 91assist the people who initially purchased a FlashPoint for a supported 92operating system and then later decided to run Linux, or those who had 93ended up with a FlashPoint LT, believing it was supported, and were unable 94to return it. 95 96In the middle of December, I asked to meet with BusLogic's senior 97management to discuss the issues related to Linux and free software support 98for the FlashPoint. Rumors of varying accuracy had been circulating 99publicly about BusLogic's attitude toward the Linux community, and I felt 100it was best that these issues be addressed directly. I sent an email 101message after 11pm one evening, and the meeting took place the next 102afternoon. Unfortunately, corporate wheels sometimes grind slowly, 103especially when a company is being acquired, and so it's taken until now 104before the details were completely determined and a public statement could 105be made. 106 107BusLogic is not prepared at this time to release the information necessary 108for third parties to write drivers for the FlashPoint. The only existing 109FlashPoint drivers have been written directly by BusLogic Engineering, and 110there is no FlashPoint documentation sufficiently detailed to allow outside 111developers to write a driver without substantial assistance. While there 112are people at BusLogic who would rather not release the details of the 113FlashPoint architecture at all, that debate has not yet been settled either 114way. In any event, even if documentation were available today it would 115take quite a while for a usable driver to be written, especially since I'm 116not convinced that the effort required would be worthwhile. 117 118However, BusLogic does remain committed to providing a high performance 119SCSI solution for the Linux community, and does not want to see anyone left 120unable to run Linux because they have a Flashpoint LT. Therefore, BusLogic 121has put in place a direct upgrade program to allow any Linux user worldwide 122to trade in their FlashPoint LT for the new BT-948 MultiMaster PCI Ultra 123SCSI Host Adapter. The BT-948 is the Ultra SCSI successor to the BT-946C 124and has all the best features of both the BT-946C and FlashPoint LT, 125including smart termination and a flash PROM for easy firmware updates, and 126is of course compatible with the present Linux driver. The price for this 127upgrade has been set at US $45 plus shipping and handling, and the upgrade 128program will be administered through BusLogic Technical Support, which can 129be reached by electronic mail at techsup@buslogic.com, by Voice at +1 408 130654-0760, or by FAX at +1 408 492-1542. 131 132As of 14 June 1996, the original BusLogic FlashPoint LT to BT-948 upgrade 133program has now been extended to encompass the FlashPoint LW Wide Ultra 134SCSI Host Adapter. Any Linux user worldwide may trade in their FlashPoint 135LW (BT-950) for a BT-958 MultiMaster PCI Ultra SCSI Host Adapter. The 136price for this upgrade has been set at US $65 plus shipping and handling. 137 138I was a beta test site for the BT-948/958, and versions 1.2.1 and 1.3.1 of 139my BusLogic driver already included latent support for the BT-948/958. 140Additional cosmetic support for the Ultra SCSI MultiMaster cards was added 141subsequent releases. As a result of this cooperative testing process, 142several firmware bugs were found and corrected. My heavily loaded Linux 143test system provided an ideal environment for testing error recovery 144processes that are much more rarely exercised in production systems, but 145are crucial to overall system stability. It was especially convenient 146being able to work directly with their firmware engineer in demonstrating 147the problems under control of the firmware debugging environment; things 148sure have come a long way since the last time I worked on firmware for an 149embedded system. I am presently working on some performance testing and 150expect to have some data to report in the not too distant future. 151 152BusLogic asked me to send this announcement since a large percentage of the 153questions regarding support for the FlashPoint have either been sent to me 154directly via email, or have appeared in the Linux newsgroups in which I 155participate. To summarize, BusLogic is offering Linux users an upgrade 156from the unsupported FlashPoint LT (BT-930) to the supported BT-948 for US 157$45 plus shipping and handling, or from the unsupported FlashPoint LW 158(BT-950) to the supported BT-958 for $65 plus shipping and handling. 159Contact BusLogic Technical Support at techsup@buslogic.com or +1 408 160654-0760 to take advantage of their offer. 161 162 Leonard N. Zubkoff 163 lnz@dandelion.com 164