CY13@TE.CC.CMU.EDU.UUCP (03/02/87)
As promised, a digestified answer is below. Basically the rumor is false.
My thanks to all those who replied.
Curt Yeske
Technical Administrator
Carnegie Mellon Computing Center
CY13@te.cc.cmu.edu
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are my own and are not Carnegie Mellon's.
The facts are figments of my imagination anyway.
*** My message ***
Currently we have some RP07's formatted for VMS and several formatted
for Tops. We would like to be able to interchange these from time to
time as hardware konks out. I am aware that each system needs to see
its own formatting (36 bit vs 32 bit). We are aware of how to format
each type. However we have heard a rumor that it is not possible to
take a Tops-20 formatted RP07 and reformat it for use on a Vax. Can
anybody confirm or deny this?
Please let me know and I will digest the answers back to info-vax and tops-20.
*** Exact Information ***
From: Willis Dair <G.Dair@Score.Stanford.EDU>
Your rumor is wrong. The RP07 has the capability to format itself
to 18-bit (TOPS-20) or 16-bit (VAX). The little microprocessor inside
will do the actual formatting. Your local field person should be able
to do the formatting. We have some TOP-20 RP07 disks that were converted
to be VAX disks. These are pretty smart drives.
Willis
*** Exact Information ***
From: Carl Fussell <G.FUSSELL@Score.Stanford.EDU>
That is not true. We have two RP07s that were running on our TOPS20
there were reformatted (on site) and are now running on our VAX/VMS
system. The operation amounts to removing a jumper from the backplane
of the drive and then formatting.
Carl Fussell
*** Other information ***
From: "ROBERT CURLEY" <curley@wharton-10>
I recently purchased the RP07 from the Medical School Computer Facility
here at Penn. It had been connected to a DEC10. I wanted it connected to
my 780. During the installation process the Field Service person mumbled
something about the format problem - but overcame it. I will ask him
about the details if you wish.
*** Other ***
From: <SYSTEM@CRNLNS.BITNET>
Curt,
I don't know about TOPS-20 format packs, but we had no trouble at all
when converting our RP07 first from VMS format to TOPS-10 and later
from TOPS-10 format to VMS format. In addition to a different block
size (TOPS-10 has 128 36bit words per block: 640 bytes instead of 512)
the disk was formatted without interleaving while we used it on the 10,
but we are using it with interleaving on our 8600.
As I recall, the DEC VAX diagnostic that did the reformatting had to run
stand-alone because of the stringent timing requirements.
I hope this helps.
Selden E. Ball, Jr.
*** Other Information ***
From: 114RONAN%UK.AC.LIVPOL.VAX@AC.UK
Hi. Sorry I can't really help you with your RP07 problem, but we had an
RA81 delivered for our VAXcluster which had been formatted for 36
instead of 32 bits, and we had to wait weeks while DEC took it back and
got another one - they did NOT re-format the original, so maybe it's a
hardware thing.
On another topic, I notice that your message was also sent to TOPS-20
at Stanford. Can I assume that this is a TOPS-20 version of INFO-VAX?
If so, how can I get myself registered on it? We also have a 2065,
and if TOPS-20 is anything like INFO-VAX, it will prove a fountain
of useful information. I presume there would be no problem getting
messages through to here in the U.K.?
[try TOPS-20@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU -curt]
Ronan Flood,
*** Other Information ***
From: lsmith.pasa@Xerox.COM
This is not a direct answer to your question of can you
reformat an RP07. However, we were faced with getting data from a
DEC10 RP06 disk to a VAX and solved it by using a dual-access RP06
disk drive and developing code to run under TOPS10 to access the RP06
in the VAX' Files-11 format. We were thus able to format the disk
from the VAX, then dismount it from the VAX, mount it from the DEC10,
write DEC10 files to it, dismount from DEC10, mount from VAX and read
the data. If you'd like further details let me know.
Leigh Smith
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