grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) (11/27/87)
A recent Amiga Mail article listed the following disk drives that have been tested with the A2090 hard disk controller and associated driver software: SCSI Drives: Epson HMD-726A Miniscribe 8425S Quantum Q280 Rodime RO652 Seagate ST157N Segate 251N ST506/ST412 Drives: Generic 2 head, 10 MByte Generic 4 head, 10 MByte Miniscribe 3425/8425 Miniscribe 3650 Seagate ST225 Seagate ST251 Notes: 1) The SCSI drives represent a fair profile of the readily available low cost drives. Many third party peripheral devices have one of these drives hidden under the cover. Other drives should work, however command set differences may result in driver problems. Reports of what does work and especially what doesn't work are appreciated. 2) ST506/ST412 drives are fairly generic these days. The one restriction to keep in mind is that the A2090 does not support relatively exotic drives having more than 8 heads. Check drive specifications to avoid embarrassment in this regard. 3) The A2090 hardware and firmware is capable of supporting buffered SCSI tape and other peripheral devices, however the current driver software is oriented towards disk devices. Hopefully this situation will be improved in the future. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|ihnp4|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
joeb@marque.mu.edu (Joe Bronikowski) (11/28/87)
In article <2870@cbmvax.UUCP> grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) writes: >2) ST506/ST412 drives are fairly generic these days. The one restriction > to keep in mind is that the A2090 does not support relatively exotic > drives having more than 8 heads. Check drive specifications to avoid > embarrassment in this regard. What about drives that allow RLL encoding? For example, the Seagate ST277R has the same specs as the ST251 which you mentioned as working, except that it uses RLL encoding to provide 76.9 MB (unformatted) instead of 51.2 MB (and the price is only 10% greater!). Since you need a special RLL controller card when you use this drive in a PC, does that mean that the A2090 will see it as only a 51.2 MB disk (or worse)? Should I buy the ST251 instead? -- Joe Bronikowski ...!seismo!uwvax!uwmcsd1!marque!joeb
grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) (11/29/87)
In article <1941@marque.mu.edu> joeb@marque.UUCP (Joe Bronikowski) writes: > In article <2870@cbmvax.UUCP> grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) writes: > >2) ST506/ST412 drives are fairly generic these days. The one restriction > > to keep in mind is that the A2090 does not support relatively exotic > > drives having more than 8 heads. Check drive specifications to avoid > > embarrassment in this regard. > > What about drives that allow RLL encoding? For example, the Seagate ST277R > has the same specs as the ST251 which you mentioned as working, except that > it uses RLL encoding to provide 76.9 MB (unformatted) instead of 51.2 MB (and > the price is only 10% greater!). Since you need a special RLL controller card > when you use this drive in a PC, does that mean that the A2090 will see it as > only a 51.2 MB disk (or worse)? Should I buy the ST251 instead? Right, RLL doesn't get you scratch without an RLL controller. I'm not sure what will happen with this particular drive, but either you only get the 50MB or it won't work due to some incompatibility. Might as well buy to ST251 or get a SCSI version that hides the RLL or other tricks behind a wall of higher level protocol. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|ihnp4|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)
tdwest@lion.UUCP (11/29/87)
In article <2870@cbmvax.UUCP> grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) writes: >A recent Amiga Mail article listed the following disk drives that have been >tested with the A2090 hard disk controller and associated driver software: > >ST506/ST412 Drives: >Generic 2 head, 10 MByte | Generic 4 head, 10 MByte >Miniscribe 3425/8425 | Miniscribe 3650 >Seagate ST225 | Seagate ST251 > Add to that a MicroScience HH1050 (45Meg formatted, 28ms). Works Great! -- Terry D. West University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. {backbone}!watmath!lion!tdwest
cmcmanis@pepper.UUCP (11/29/87)
In article <2872@cbmvax.UUCP> grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) writes: +In article <1941@marque.mu.edu> joeb@marque.UUCP (Joe Bronikowski) writes: +>What about drives that allow RLL encoding? For example, the Seagate ST277R +>has the same specs as the ST251 which you mentioned as working, except that +>it uses RLL encoding to provide 76.9 MB (unformatted) instead of 51.2 MB (and +>the price is only 10% greater!). Since you need a special RLL controller card +> when you use this drive in a PC, does that mean that the A2090 will see it as +> only a 51.2 MB disk (or worse)? Should I buy the ST251 instead? + + Right, RLL doesn't get you scratch without an RLL controller. I'm not sure + what will happen with this particular drive, but either you only get the 50MB + or it won't work due to some incompatibility. Might as well buy to ST251 or + get a SCSI version that hides the RLL or other tricks behind a wall of higher + level protocol. Computer Surplus is selling the Adaptec 4070 SCSI->RLL ST506 adapter for $129. You could then use the RLL drive with the 2090 controller as a SCSI drive. They are in San Jose CA and their number is (408) 434-1060. They also have an ad on pg 366 of the December BYTE. I've done business with them before and my only complaint was that they wanted to much for some of the S-100 gear they were selling. Note they usually sell used stuff that has bee tested to work. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
lphillips@lpami.van-bc.UUCP (Larry Phillips) (12/06/87)
In article <4280@watdragon.waterloo.edu> tdwest@lion.waterloo.edu (Terry D. West) >In article <2870@cbmvax.UUCP> grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) writes: >>A recent Amiga Mail article listed the following disk drives that have been >>tested with the A2090 hard disk controller and associated driver software: >> >>ST506/ST412 Drives: >>Generic 2 head, 10 MByte | Generic 4 head, 10 MByte >>Miniscribe 3425/8425 | Miniscribe 3650 >>Seagate ST225 | Seagate ST251 >> >Add to that a MicroScience HH1050 (45Meg formatted, 28ms). Works Great! Add to that a Fuji FK305-26 (3.5"... fits in the second floppy bay nicely) -- The transistor is a curiosity, and will never amount to much. -- Mr. Stringer, Basic Electronic Instructor, RCAF, 1962. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips UUCP: lphillips@lpami.van-bc.UUCP | | \X/ or: {ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision,uunet}!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
root@sbcs (Root) (12/08/87)
The Vertex V70 full height 5.25" drive works with the A2090, also. Due to the ~50 mByte limit in the filesystem, one has to divide the drive into two volumes though. Rick Spanbauer SUNY/Stony Brook