SSSWG - MCS Meeting of November 1996 Minutes

November 4, 1996 Meeting in San Jose
Medium Changer Services meeting - Sponsored by IEEE SSSWG (P1244)

Date of these minutes:  December 31, 1996
Recorder:  Dixon Hutchinson

Attendance:

Dixon Hutchinson, Exabyte Corporation
hutch@exabyte.com
1685 38th Street
Boulder, CO 80301
V: (303) 417-7751
F: (303) 417-7416

Curtis Anderson, Silicon Graphics
curtis@sgi.com
2001 N. Shoreline Blvd
Mountain View, CA
V: (415) 933-1193

Geoff Peck, Silicon Graphics
geoff@sgi.com
V: (415) 933-3091
F: (415) 933-3542

Ken Hibbard, Silicon Graphics
hibbard@sgi.com

Chris Moor, Hewlett Packard
cmoore@cancun.rose.hp.com
8000 Foothills Blvd
Roseville, CA 95747
V: (916) 785-1671

Mike Johnson, Tracer Technologies Inc.
mpj@tracertech.com (mpj1@aol.com)
PO Box 70059
Riverside, CA 92513
V: (800) 319-7348

Paul Lockwood, Lagato Systems Inc.
plock@legato.com
3210 Porter Drive
Palo Alto, CA
V: (415) 812-6110

Tim Slaton, Lefato Systems Inc
V: (415) 812-6265

Charles Smith, Philips LMS
4425 Arrow West
Colorado Springs, CO
V: (719) 593-4364

Jonathan Otis, ADIC
jonathano@adic.com
10201 Willows Rd
Redmond, WA 98052
V: (206) 861-1495

Chuck Huie, Maxoptix
3342 Gateway Blvd.
Fremont, CA
V: (510) 353-9700 x331




*************************************
What happened at the Nov. 4 Meeting

Remarks by Dixon Hutchinson of Exabyte Corporation who organized the
meeting:

 1) Reason for the meeting
      To to coordinate and organize those parties interested in developing
      an industry common, OS independent API for Medium Changers.
  2) Overview of IEEE sponsorship and SSSWG activities and organization.
  3) Solicit participation as that is the only way an API development
      committee will survive.

There was much discussion on what a standard API might provide and at
what level of service.  There was general consensus that a standard API
would be useful, particularly if the major Operating System vendors
supported the API. HP and SGI were represented.  The other OS vendors
that had been contacted about the meeting were unable to attend
(Microsoft, Apple, IBM, DEC, SUN).

In order to have a better understanding of the environment the the API
might be used in, Dixon asked Silicon Graphics representatives to give
an overview of their new Open Vault product as an example of a storage
management application that utilizes medium changers.  While this gave
SGI a surprise forum to push their product (not the intent), it also
provided a better starting point for discussion of what a medium changer
API should address (Dixon's opinion).

There meeting was ended with the promise that more information would be 
disseminated.

********************************
What has happened since Nov. 4

SGI has promised to provide us with a description of their API at 
the medium changer level.

Exabyte also had an API they are willing to share.

Tracer also has an API, its not clear yet whether they can share that
API publicly.

DIGITAL has an API they are willing to share with us (IEEE).

The Medium Changer Services (MCS) Project Authorization Request (PAR),
project 1244.7, was approved at the December 12 meeting of the IEEE
Standards Board.  X3T12 and PASC were added to the coordination list.
Copies of the actual PAR will be available at the next IEEE SSSWG
meeting.

SGI and Veritas made presentations at the IEEE SSSWG meetings on 11/5-7
on OpenVault and Network Removable Media Librarian respectively.
Because of the very significant recent developments by SGI, Veritas and
SSSWG in the media management arena, the next meeting of SSSWG will
again be in the Southern Bay area, hosted by Veritas on January 21 thru
23.  See URL:http://www.arl.mil/IEEE/MINUTES/nov_1996.html for the
minutes of the last SSSWG meeting and
URL:http://www.arl.mil/IEEE/next_meeting_arrangements.html for the plans
for the next meeting.

*************************************************
Current plans:

Dixon plans to collect and distribute the Exabyte, SGI and DIGITAL API's.
Tracer's may also be available.

Dixon will make contacts with IBM and SUN in an attempt to gain support
for the MCS effort from those companies.

MCS is on the agenda for the January SSSWG meeting in Mountain View,
interested parties should attend.