ejp (Eric Porter) (06/14/90)
I tried posting this to "comp.misc" and the only responses I got suggested I repost here. So..... I recently aquired a convergent miniframe. It cost almost nothing and figured it would look nice sitting under the table below my 7300 :-). I am told the beast worked the last time it was turned on. Unfortunatly the previous owner has removed the hard disk, the disk drive cables, and lost the O.S. disketts. Could someone please help me with the folowing: 1) What do i need to cable the hard disk, and floppy disk? Anything strange (twists in the cable etc). The motherboard has 4 connectors (none seem to be marked) wich is for the hard drive/floppy ? 2) Can someone help my track down Unix, C, or Diagnostics? (I would like to start with the diagnostics.) Oh the model number is CG-150 (if that matters) Thanks in advance Eric Porter ------ Eric Porter uunet!grout!ejp
thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (06/15/90)
{Newsgroups: comp.sys.att} {Subject: Convergent MiniFrame (Help)} ejp@grout.HP.COM(Eric Porter) in <1990Jun13.235306.1062@lsw!grout!ejp> writes: I recently aquired a convergent miniframe. ... I am told the beast worked the last time it was turned on. Unfortunatly the previous owner has removed the hard disk, the disk drive cables, and lost the O.S. disketts. ... The Miniframe is also known as (repackaged as) the Motorola 6300, and it's logically the same as the AT&T UNIXPC (aka 3B1 aka PC7300 (which is also known as Convergent's S50 box)). Re: 1) What do i need to cable the hard disk, and floppy disk? Anything strange (twists in the cable etc). The motherboard has 4 connectors (none seem to be marked) wich is for the hard drive/floppy ? Look at the motherboard. The edge having the connectors looks like so: +----[20-pin]----[20-pin]----[34-pin]----[34-pin]----------+ | | (A) (B) (C) (D) (A) is the data bus to/from the second HD (B) is the data bus to/from the first HD (C) is the data/control bus for the floppy drive. Standard pinouts; straight through to the floppy drive (which, by the way, is DS/QD with STANDARD media (not IBM-type hi-density); the PROPER floppy is, for example, a Verbatim DataLife 2S/4D, 80-track, 96TPI, quad-density, soft-sectored, with hub-ring, product code MD 557-01). (D) is the daisy-chainable control bus for the hard drives. The ribbon cable simply goes to each HD in turn with the last HD being the only one with the resistor termination pack. No funny twists are required assuming you know how to set the drive-select jumpers on each HD's logic/control PCB. The HDs need to be MFM ST-506 with 17-sectors/track, with up to 16 heads and 1024 cylinders MAX. If you swap the WD1010 for a WD2010 (which is a plugin socketed swap), you can go beyond 1024 cylinders (like for a Maxtor XT2190). Re: 2) Can someone help my track down Unix, C, or Diagnostics? (I would like to start with the diagnostics.) Wellllll, you can run either the latest CTIX (from Convergent) or Motorola's FE07 or FE08 software releases. And you can run anything from the UNIXPC that doesn't used the shared libraries; don't expect to run the 3B1's kernel due to the weird formatting of the HD required for the "download area" for the RS-422 console terminal. I have a diagnostics disk that you're welcome to for the cost of mailing, but I strongly urge you to contact Convergent (on First Street in San Jose, CA) to see about getting a CTIX license and software for use on your system if you wish to pursue the (arduous) task of bringing it up from scratch. I do NOT have CTIX nor am I familiar with that software product, but I'd be willing to help you with any HARDWARE questions you have re-building your system since it's otherwise identical to the Motorola 6300/6350. Thad Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]
bri@tsnews.Convergent.COM (Brian Rice) (06/16/90)
thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: >{Newsgroups: comp.sys.att} >{Subject: Convergent MiniFrame (Help)} >ejp@grout.HP.COM(Eric Porter) in <1990Jun13.235306.1062@lsw!grout!ejp> writes: > I recently aquired a convergent miniframe. > ... > I am told the beast worked the last time it was turned on. Unfortunatly > the previous owner has removed the hard disk, the disk drive cables, > and lost the O.S. disketts. > ... >The Miniframe is also known as (repackaged as) the Motorola 6300, and it's >logically the same as the AT&T UNIXPC (aka 3B1 aka PC7300 (which is also known >as Convergent's S50 box)). Um... well the UNIXPC _was_ modeled after the mini, but be they are different. >Re: 2) Can someone help my track down Unix, C, or Diagnostics? > (I would like to start with the diagnostics.) >Wellllll, you can run either the latest CTIX (from Convergent) or Motorola's >FE07 or FE08 software releases. [...deleted stuff] Unfortunately Convergent no longer supports the MiniFrame so I don't know if you can get the software you're looking for. Maybe the Motorola stuff Thad refers to is still current? Brian Rice Technical Support Convergent ...ctnews!tsmiti!bri