parker@epiwrl.EPI.COM (Alan Parker) (10/07/87)
I have a 20Meg ST-225 with an OMTI-5510 controller. The controller has died. Can anyone tell me what controller I can replace the OMTI-5510 with that will be compatible with the format on the disk (so I can use the bits that are there the way they are!). I've been told everything from "no two controllers are the same" to "all controllers made in the last few years are the same". I assume the truth is somewhere in between. In looking through the ads, I haven't seen the OMTI-5510 listed (I'm not surprised as mine is >2 years old). California Digital lists an OMTI-5520. Does anyone know if this is the same as the 5510 (as far as format is concerned?). Of course, if anyone has a 5510 they would like to sell me, that would be good also. Thanks. Alan Parker, Internet: parker@wrl.epi.com Entropic Speech, Inc. Uucp: uunet!epiwrl!parker Washington, DC (202) 547-1420
bill@hpcvlo.HP.COM (Bill Frolik) (10/09/87)
My SMS reference manual lists quite a few differences between the OMTI 5510 and the OMTI 5520. Some of the biggies: - The 5520 card is shorter (4.95") than the 5510 (5.5"). - The 5520 has an onboard drive power connecter (not found on 5510). - The 5520 fixes the number of bytes per sector at 512, with 17 sectors per track (for MFM drives). Your 5510 has jumpers (W9 and W10) that let you select from 512/18, 256/32, 512/17, and 1024/9 bytes-per-sector/sectors-per-track. Your 5510 also lets you individually specify LUN 0 and LUN 1 as hard- or soft-sectored, and lets you specify the drive as fixed or removable (which changes a number of other parameters as well.) Card I/O base address and BIOS base address configuration are the same; Buffer size, ECC length, and data transfer rates are also the same. Controller command set is the same, and I would imagine BIOS command set is also the same. If I were you, I'd ask the folks at SMS (415-964-5700) if you can make the replacement. Looks like enough things are different that I'd be skeptical about just dropping in a 5520 and expecting everything to work. Bill Frolik hp-pcd!bill Hewlett-Packard Portable Computer Division Corvallis, Oregon 97330