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General Administrative Questions
General Development Questions
ASPI for Win32 Questions
ASPI for Win16 Questions
ASPI for DOS Questions

Copyright

Copyright© 1998 Adaptec, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Adaptec, Inc., 691South Milpitas Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035.

Trademarks

Adaptec, the Adaptec logo, and AHA are trademarks of Adaptec, Inc. which may be registered in some jurisdictions.

All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Changes

The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice. While reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy, Adaptec, Inc. assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document, or from the use of the information contained herein.

Adaptec reserves the right to make changes in the product design without reservation and without notification to its users.

General Administrative Questions

Q: What is ASPI for Windows 95 and Windows NT?

A: The Advanced SCSI Programming Interface (ASPI) for Windows 95 and Windows NT allows a variety of different applications, DLLs, or drivers to send commands to SCSI devices. ASPI is supported on a number of different operating systems including DOS, Windows 95, Windows NT, NetWare, and OS/2. There are also a number of different application programming interfaces (APIs) including ASPI for DOS, ASPI for Win16, ASPI for Win32, ASPI for NetWare, and ASPI for OS/2.

This document focuses on frequently asked questions about ASPI for Windows 95 and Windows NT, regardless of the API. Specifically, ASPI for Windows 95 supports the ASPI for DOS, ASPI for Win16, and ASPI for Win32 APIs, while Windows NT supports the ASPI for Win16 and ASPI for Win32 APIs. There is also a version of ASPI for Win32 for the Alpha under Windows NT, but it is not specifically covered by this document.

Unless otherwise noted in this document, the term ASPI shall mean ASPI for Windows 95 and Windows NT.

Q: What is the most current version of ASPI?

A: As of the date on this document, the most current ASPI for Windows 95 and Windows NT is version 4.57, build 1008. The latest version of ASPI (not suitable for redistribution) can be downloaded, and the filename is ASPI32.EXE. Also available from this site is a small utility named ASPICHK.EXE that lists all the version numbers for the ASPI layer on a particular machine.

Q: Where can I get the latest ASPI specification and sample disk?

A: The latest ASPI for Win32 specification and sample disk may be obtained by sending an e-mail request to mailto:acap@corp.adaptec.com. The request should include your full name, company name, and address as well as a brief description of why you need the latest specification.

The latest specification for all other ASPI APIs can be obtained by purchasing the ASPI Software Development Kit. The latest is version 2.3, and it can be obtained directly from Adaptec. Call the Adaptec Software Hotline at +1.800.442.7274 (or +1.408.957.7274) and ask for the ASPI SDK, part number 521100D.

Q: Where can I get the latest SCSI specifications?

A: Neither the ASPI SDK nor the specifications include a tutorial on SCSI programming. They assume a solid knowledge of the SCSI specification, along with detailed knowledge of the device you are attempting to program. Here are sources for the latest SCSI specifications:

In addition, it is highly recommended that you acquire the technical reference manuals for any SCSI hardware which your ASPI module intends to support. These manuals can be obtained from the hardware manufacturer, and they provide detailed information on which SCSI commands are supported and how they are implemented.

Q: How does my company license ASPI for redistribution?

A: Although ASPI is delivered with Windows 95, it is not delivered with Windows NT. Furthermore, the version delivered with Windows 95 is older and does not have all of the latest features. If you want the latest version of ASPI to be delivered with your application for either Windows 95 or Windows NT, then you must license ASPI for redistribution from Adaptec.

Licensing ASPI is fairly easy, and assuming you qualify, it is free. First, you should contact Diane McGee in the Adaptec Legal Department. She can be reached via e-mail at mailto:dmcgee@corp.adaptec.com, and she will ask you to fill out an ASPI Distribution License Request form. The form requests your company name, complete address, phone, fax, name of contract representative, and a brief description of your development project. The form is either mailed or faxed to Diane for processing.

Following receipt of the form, it will take approximately 5 business days for approval, followed by up to 10 business days for the generation of the contracts and internal paperwork. Basically, you should plan on requesting the license roughly four to eight weeks before your project is to be completed.

Once licensed you will receive a single floppy which contains the ASPI installer for both Intel and Alpha (which must be used--it is no longer optional), the documentation for the installer, the latest ASPI for Win32 documentation, and the latest ASPI for Win32 sample. All of the documentation is distributed electronically as Adobe® Acrobat® files.

Please be aware that the ASPI layer is copyright Adaptec and should not be put on any on-line forums for free download. If your customers ever need an interim release of ASPI which you are not licensed to distribute, then you may direct them to the Adaptec web site to download the latest ASPI layer.

Q: How do I get technical support for ASPI development issues?

A: For the Intel platform, Adaptec provides technical support for the ASPI for Win32 layer. We do not explain Win32 programming, SCSI command sets, SCSI bus phases, etc. If you feel the ASPI layer is not performing properly, or if you have a question not answered in our specifications, please e-mail Daniel Polfer at mailto:polfer@moxietech.com. You should also include the output from ASPICHK.EXE if you are having any technical difficulties.

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Revised: 01/27/1998