5.      SCSI driver software (and where to find it)

        Some thoughts about SCSI utilities and software here....
        Most driver packages come with disk formatting utilities and
        some other stuff. However, there are some other packages and
        general utilities.

5.1.    Driver packages

        The best known SCSI driver packages (at least for me) are Corel
        SCSI, Adaptec's EZSCSI, Trantor's SCSIWorks and Future Domain's
        PowerSCSI!. Of course, there are many others I can't mention -
        I simply don't know about them.

        Most versions of these packages I've seen all include various
        ASPI or CAM and ASPI drivers, additional drivers like CDROM
        and hard disk drivers and some basic utilities like low level
        formatter and partition manager.

        Lately the vendors tend to add some value to the packages:

        EZSCSI 3.0, for example, bundles the drivers with Windows ASPI
        driver and DLL, a PhotoCD viewer, various help files and a tape
        backup program, CD players and a SCSI interrogator. Also, a HP
        scanner driver for the SJIIx series is included, although this
        seem to be a bit unstable with the actual ASPI driver versions.
        So, it seems to be worth a try to use the ASPI driver from
        EZSCSI 2.03 when using a HP scanner with these adapters.

        Corel SCSI, a more hardware-independent approach, can "sit" on
        the vendor's ASPI driver (it supplies a lot of these, also for
        manufacturers that don't have ASPI drivers of their own) to
        give support for CDROM, scanners, disks, tapes and nearly
        whatever devices are there...
        Even CDROM burners and SCSI printers have some support.

        The last version of SCSIWorks! i've seen also has a HP scanner
        driver and includes TapeMate II, a relative good tape backup
        program for DOS.

        Future Domain's PowerSCSI! contains CAM drivers for their host
        adapters, a CDROM driver and CD-Audio tool, a disk formatter and
        a SCSI device analyzer - nice tool if you have a FD adapter.

        There is also a $40 shareware SCSI driver package called MSDRVR
        from a japanese company called "Micro Staff" with ASPI-based
        disk, MO and CDROM drivers on CompuServe. I didn't try it, but
        it may be worth a look (MSDRVR.ZIP, IBMHW forum).

        If you look specifically for NCR's 53c8xx drivers, the german
        c't BBS at ++49-511-5352301 is worth a look. c't has a deal
        with NCR and major motherboard manufacturers like Asus, J-Bond
        and Gigabyte to have the latest drivers and Flash BIOS versions
        on their BBS for download. I don't know if it's allowed to
        upload these drivers to CIS or other BBS, but i didn't find an
        explicit "NO" in my log files.

5.1.1   CDROM drivers and software

        There are different SCSI CDROM drivers. Some of these use a
        standard interface like ASPI or CAM as a base and some directly
        address the hardware. When looking for a CDROM driver, keep in
        mind that it not only must support your drive, but also your
        host adapter or your SCSI driver interface. So, for example,
        there are some flavours of Trantor's TSLCDR.SYS. Some of them
        work over ASPI, but most of these supplied with sound cards are
        dedicated to the sound board's hardware. The same happens with
        some other CDROM drivers.

        The drivers I know personally are ASPICD.SYS from Adaptec,
        Trantor's TSLCDR.SYS (ASPI and hardware-specific types) and
        Toshiba's MDSCD_AS.SYS. All of these work with my Toshiba 3301
        and 3401 drives, just that MDSCD_AS.SYS locks up when a multi-
        session PhotoCD is in the drive on startup.

        There are some packages out there to read digital audio data
        from the drive. CorelSCSI 2.0 includes two such programs for
        DOS and Windows. Also, there is Jim McLaughlin's CDDA 1.0 and
        CTCDREAD from c't, a german magazine. According to CDDA's doc,
        a few others exist on the internet - however, i know none of
        them. CDDA 1.0 works with various Apple, Chinon, NEC, Sony and
        Toshiba drives. Also, it has a MSCDEX-only mode that may work
        on other, also non-SCSI drives.

5.1.2.  Scanner drivers and software

        A lot of SCSI scanners that come with dedicated SCSI adapters
        also have "standard" drivers to attach the scanner to another
        SCSI host adapter and address it over ASPI or CAM interfaces.
        For the HP Scanjet IIxx series, this driver is called SJIIX.SYS.
        My own Epson GT-6500 works flawlessly over ASPI with EPSON.SYS.
        If you don't have a generic SCSI driver for your scanner, ask
        your dealer about it and/or look in the vendor's forum or the
        Graphic support (GRAPHSUP) forum on CompuServe. Also, there are
        some drivers in forum sections of OEMs like Vobis (This german
        stores have OEM models of some Microtek and Mustek scanners and
        so keep the drivers in their forum)
        If you don't find anything, Corel SCSI 2.0 is worth a look.
        The Corel guys support a lot of different scanners with their
        generic TWAIN-over-ASPI support.

5.1.3.  Removeable and Magneto-optical devices.

        There seem to be basically three types of removeable disks in
        the market: magneto-optical drives, Bernoulli and Syquest disks.
        I don't have access to a Syquest, but I use my Bernoulli and a
        MO drive with ASPIDISK.SYS under DOS. With OS/2, there is a
        driver for Magnetoopticals (OPTICAL.SYS), and the Bernoulli
        is supported as a very big floppy disk with the standard drivers.
        IOMega's OS/2 drivers work by bypassing OS/2's driver concept
        with IOMega's own (slow) SCSI adapters, so I never tested them.
        Generally, if possible, I try to use standard drivers, not the
        vendor-specific ones, for I get better compatibility with the
        "standard" ones.

5.2.    some small SCSI tools

        Over times, I collected various SCSI tools that came with host
        adapters or as a support aid from vendors. There are some useful
        utilities that might save you time. So, here a list of some of
        these niceties:

        NCR's GANGCOPY.EXE copies complete SCSI disks that are attached
        to a NCR CAM-compliant host adapter. It can be very useful for
        dealers or support staff with big standard configurations - copy
        the master and then mount the copy into the new PC.

        HP's SCSI driver pack for the Scanjet II scanners has a tool
        called FindSCSI.EXE. It scans for ASPI and CAM drivers, then
        displays the attached devices like this:

           ADAPTEC AHA-1x4x is ASPI Host adapter 0.
                 QUANTUM PD425S       at Address 0, Stat 0.
                 DEC     DSP3085S-B   at Address 1, Stat 0.
                 TANDBERG TDC 3600    at Address 2, Stat 0.
                 TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-33 at Address 3, Stat 0.
                 SDI     LaserStor    at Address 4, Stat 0.
           CAM manager is NOT present

        Also, Conner supplies ASPIINFO.EXE with their SCSI backup
        software. It uses only ASPI, but displays more information.
        I think that I saw ASPIINFO originally on CIS, so it may be
        freely available.

        Also, there is a tool called SHOWSCSI that started as a demo
        program for the c't ASPI library. It is basically a small clone
        of Adaptec's Windows-based SHOWSCSI program. Output is like:

         ͻ
          Host Adapter #0                                             
         Ķ
          Host Adapter SCSI_ID: #7                                    
          ASPI-Manager        : DOS SCSIMGR 3.3                       
          Host Adapter ID     : ADAPTEC AHA-1x4x                      
         ͼ
         Ŀ
          Host Adapter #0 - SCSI ID 0 - LUN 0: Disk Device            
         Ĵ
          Device Information              Miscellaneous              
            Vendor ID  : QUANTUM            Device Type : SCSI-2     
            Product ID : PD425S             Capacity    :  406 MByte 
            Revision   : 606_               Bytes/Sector:  512 Byte  
         Ĵ
           SCSI-Features                                              
             [] Synchronous Mode          [ ] WIDE SCSI (16-bit)     
             [] SCSI Linking              [ ] WIDE SCSI (32-bit)     
             [ ] Command Queuing                                      
         
         Ŀ
          Host Adapter #0 - SCSI ID 1 - LUN 0: Disk Device            
         ......
        and so on - you get the idea.

        Seagate has a tool called ASPIID, that shows lots of more-or-less
        useful information about SCSI disks. Also seen on CompuServe...

5.3.    Tape software (only Shareware)

        There are a few Shareware or Freeware TAR implementations out.
        The first I ever saw was Greg Shenaut's ASPITAPE.SYS and PCTAR
        combination. If I remember right, ASPITAPE.SYS is $20-Shareware
        and PCTAR is freeware. According to my test-experience, it works
        flawless, but the TAR is somewhat limited in its possibilities.

        At the moment, I use GNU Tar for DOS and OS/2. I found GNU Tar
        for DOS on CompuServe in the IBMHW forum, GNU Tar for OS/2 in
        the OS2USER forum. Both work OK with my systems and any other i
        tested, and GNU Tar is IMHO the best TAR in the world.
        ASPITAPE/PCTAR should be in IBMHW also or in the UNIXFORUM.


5.4.    Programming info for SCSI

        At the moment, I don't know how to obtain CAM programming info.
        However, NCR's SCSI BBS surely should be a good point to start
        searching.

        ASPI information can be obtained from Adaptec BBS. There is a
        very good ASPI programming lib for ASM, C and Turbo Pascal
        from c't, a german magazine. I'll upload what I have to the
        German computer forum GERNET in the next days (section "c't").
        I'm not sure if i'm allowed to upload it to IBMHW, so that
        must wait 'til i'm sure.

        Also, Adaptec sells an ASPI developer's kit with documentation,
        sample sources and some test tools.

