Peter ShamboraVice President of MarketingMylex Corp.510/796-6100peters@mylex.com

                             ANNOUNCEMENT             BusLogic FlashPoint LT/BT-948 Upgrade Program                            1 February 1996                        ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT             BusLogic FlashPoint LW/BT-958 Upgrade Program                             14 June 1996Ever since its introduction last October, the BusLogic FlashPoint LT hasbeen problematic for members of the Linux community, in that no Linuxdrivers have been available for this new Ultra SCSI product.  Despite itsofficially being positioned as a desktop workstation product, and not beingparticularly well suited for a high performance multitasking operatingsystem like Linux, the FlashPoint LT has been touted by computer systemvendors as the latest thing, and has been sold even on many of their highend systems, to the exclusion of the older MultiMaster products.  This hascaused grief for many people who inadvertently purchased a system expectingthat all BusLogic SCSI Host Adapters were supported by Linux, only todiscover that the FlashPoint was not supported and would not be for quitesome time, if ever.After this problem was identified, BusLogic contacted its major OEMcustomers to make sure the BT-946C/956C MultiMaster cards would still bemade available, and that Linux users who mistakenly ordered systems withthe FlashPoint would be able to upgrade to the BT-946C.  While this helpedmany purchasers of new systems, it was only a partial solution to theoverall problem of FlashPoint support for Linux users.  It did nothing toassist the people who initially purchased a FlashPoint for a supportedoperating system and then later decided to run Linux, or those who hadended up with a FlashPoint LT, believing it was supported, and were unableto return it.In the middle of December, I asked to meet with BusLogic's seniormanagement to discuss the issues related to Linux and free software supportfor the FlashPoint.  Rumors of varying accuracy had been circulatingpublicly about BusLogic's attitude toward the Linux community, and I feltit was best that these issues be addressed directly.  I sent an emailmessage after 11pm one evening, and the meeting took place the nextafternoon.  Unfortunately, corporate wheels sometimes grind slowly,especially when a company is being acquired, and so it's taken until nowbefore the details were completely determined and a public statement couldbe made.BusLogic is not prepared at this time to release the information necessaryfor third parties to write drivers for the FlashPoint.  The only existingFlashPoint drivers have been written directly by BusLogic Engineering, andthere is no FlashPoint documentation sufficiently detailed to allow outsidedevelopers to write a driver without substantial assistance.  While thereare people at BusLogic who would rather not release the details of theFlashPoint architecture at all, that debate has not yet been settled eitherway.  In any event, even if documentation were available today it wouldtake quite a while for a usable driver to be written, especially since I'mnot convinced that the effort required would be worthwhile.However, BusLogic does remain committed to providing a high performanceSCSI solution for the Linux community, and does not want to see anyone leftunable to run Linux because they have a Flashpoint LT.  Therefore, BusLogichas put in place a direct upgrade program to allow any Linux user worldwideto trade in their FlashPoint LT for the new BT-948 MultiMaster PCI UltraSCSI Host Adapter.  The BT-948 is the Ultra SCSI successor to the BT-946Cand has all the best features of both the BT-946C and FlashPoint LT,including smart termination and a flash PROM for easy firmware updates, andis of course compatible with the present Linux driver.  The price for thisupgrade has been set at US $45 plus shipping and handling, and the upgradeprogram will be administered through BusLogic Technical Support, which canbe reached by electronic mail at techsup@buslogic.com, by Voice at +1 408654-0760, or by FAX at +1 408 492-1542.As of 14 June 1996, the original BusLogic FlashPoint LT to BT-948 upgradeprogram has now been extended to encompass the FlashPoint LW Wide UltraSCSI Host Adapter.  Any Linux user worldwide may trade in their FlashPointLW (BT-950) for a BT-958 MultiMaster PCI Ultra SCSI Host Adapter.  Theprice for this upgrade has been set at US $65 plus shipping and handling.I was a beta test site for the BT-948/958, and versions 1.2.1 and 1.3.1 ofmy BusLogic driver already included latent support for the BT-948/958.Additional cosmetic support for the Ultra SCSI MultiMaster cards was addedsubsequent releases.  As a result of this cooperative testing process,several firmware bugs were found and corrected.  My heavily loaded Linuxtest system provided an ideal environment for testing error recoveryprocesses that are much more rarely exercised in production systems, butare crucial to overall system stability.  It was especially convenientbeing able to work directly with their firmware engineer in demonstratingthe problems under control of the firmware debugging environment; thingssure have come a long way since the last time I worked on firmware for anembedded system.  I am presently working on some performance testing andexpect to have some data to report in the not too distant future.BusLogic asked me to send this announcement since a large percentage of thequestions regarding support for the FlashPoint have either been sent to medirectly via email, or have appeared in the Linux newsgroups in which Iparticipate.  To summarize, BusLogic is offering Linux users an upgradefrom the unsupported FlashPoint LT (BT-930) to the supported BT-948 for US$45 plus shipping and handling, or from the unsupported FlashPoint LW(BT-950) to the supported BT-958 for $65 plus shipping and handling.Contact BusLogic Technical Support at techsup@buslogic.com or +1 408654-0760 to take advantage of their offer.              Leonard N. Zubkoff              lnz@dandelion.com