Bell Tech Unix Review #2

[karl lehenbauer#]

I bought the Bell Tech QIC-36 tape controller for use with my 386/AT and its
Everex Excel Stream 60 external tape drive, because using the Everex one
(that Microport's 286 stuff worked with) resulted in an "Invalid controller
or firmware" message at startup time and, more to the point, wouldn't work.  
Anyway, I visually compared the two boards and was suprised to find them to be 
absolutely identical, including switch settings, except that the "Bell Tech" 
board had a Bell Tech label on its EPROM and the one I bought from Everex 
(for a good deal less money, I might add) had an Everex label.  I may have a 
look at their contents, just for yucks.  There had better be some substantial 
differences, not just a couple magic characters like "BT" in the last two 
bytes, or it might be construed to validate another vendor's remarks asserting
that BT intentionally incompatibilized their Unix to sell more hardware and
that, even though the drivers were used in the system running the validation 
suite, they were running with a tricked-up board when an ordinary one would have
been better.
-- 
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