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Subject: FW: Compact Flashes for Delorean
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:38:14 -0700
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Thread-Topic: Compact Flashes for Delorean
Thread-Index: AceDtZAR3wFa7uHHQeGALZDiJRHYTQAAB9Ig
From: "Jay Michlin" <jay.michlin@onstor.com>
To: "Andy Sharp" <andy.sharp@onstor.com>,
	"Larry Scheer" <larry.scheer@onstor.com>

FYI.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jay Michlin=20
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 6:37 PM
To: Mark Farabaugh
Cc: Jerry Lopatin; Joe Vitorino; Tim Gardner; Brian DeForest
Subject: Compact Flashes for Delorean

Mark,

As I mentioned when we met earlier today, I need your help estimating
costs to ship the Delorean release (EverON Release 3.0) on compact flash
instead of as downloadable software.

Here is the background and detail.

Delorean is a larger software download than previous releases, and so it
has a higher exposure to running our of storage on the CF during
installation. To address this, we have developed a new CF layout which
has the additional benefit of supporting 1Gb parts as well as the
current 512Mb (though we don't require a move to 1Gb). Also, we have had
ongoing bugs in the install/upgrade commands since they come from old
versions of the BSD system, and we want to fix them in Delorean. All of
these factors lead us to a two step Delorean install/upgrade process,
the first to replace the install/upgrade software, and the second to
reformat the CF and use that new software to implement Delorean itself.

In Software Development we originally proposed shipping the release on
CF to simplify the install/upgrade process for customers and also reduce
the possibility of errors and outages. Note that we proposed this for
this release only, and future releases would not need to ship on CF
because the new install/upgrade software would be in place. In any case,
we are redesigning install/upgrade for the coming Linux systems
supporting Cougar and later Bobcat, and that will eliminate these
problems once and for all.

In the Thursday Delorean core team meeting two weeks ago, Customer
Support endorsed the two step software download process rather than
shipping CFs, which they consider logistically problematic. In the
meeting last week, SE agreed to the two step software download process
too, but reserved the right to ship CFs to the one or two dozen eval
installs they expect to do per quarter. Joe attended that meeting, heard
the discussion, and agreed.

Today, a number of us met with Jerry to reconsider the situation. The
problem is that the two step process is quite onerous for customers. It
runs long (over two hours) and requires constant administration and
attention. If we can find a different alternative, we ought to.
Unfortunately, we don't have a realistic alternative to offer from SW
Development, so we want to consider the CF alternative again.

Considerations will be heavily influenced by your advice about costs to
create and ship CF units to the installed base. Your advice on logistics
will also be important (e.g. are there import restrictions or tax
considerations for shipping CFs into some countries or jurisdictions?)
We would not be upgrading the entire installed base since some customers
would choose to stay with down-level releases. Furthermore, we would not
be upgrading every customer all at once. For this preliminary estimate,
I'd appreciate if you would make whatever assumptions you think are
reasonable to arrive at a number and related advice.

I apologize for the long-winded email and wrote it only in the belief
that having the background might be useful to you. We need your analysis
as soon as you can, and hopefully by early Wednesday of next week. If
you have questions or I can be helpful, just ask.

Thanks very much,
jay
