Summary: Does the CD-ROM work on the 4/390?

[Mark Plotnick]

A few weeks ago, I mentioned the various part numbers for
externally-attached CD-ROM drives (X558H, X559H, and X559A) and asked if
the hardware was different.  The answer is that the drives are the same;
the suffix letter is used to track sales.  X558H comes with a diskette and
tape holding 4.0.3c software, the other packages don't.

I also asked if the CD-ROM drive will work on a 4/390, since the initial
press releases excluded the 4/390 from the list of supported systems.  The
answer is that it is available for 4/390's, as an upgrade (UPG-X90-CD,
$1500) that will ship starting August 31.  It costs $505 more than the
other drives because it includes a SCSI tray and some mounting hardware
(some older 4/x90 racks require the new SCSI tray), and includes
installation by a CSS representative.  The external drive is not supported
on rackmounted fileservers "due to agency compliance issues", according to
a product manager in the Installed Base Marketing Group.

Thanks to Dana Gauthier, Greg Earle, and Tom Berghoff of Sun, and Paul
Graham, Peter Ilieve, and Brian Boyter for their responses.

	Mark Plotnick
	mp at allegra.att.com