ianj@sactoh0.UUCP (Ian R. Justman) (02/17/90)
I just got an Ampro Little Board Tuesday from a friend for $50. This is just the board and software because I have the necessary hardware, like a floppy disk and a power supply. The FD and PS I got in the form of a 68000 box that someone just gave to me. Now the real quetion; With that 68k box, not only did I get a FD and a power supply, I also got a 10 megabyte MiniScribe hard disk with a Western Digital WD1002-SHD host adapter. Is there a way to hook this bugger up easily with my Ampro, and is software to drive it hard to come by? Thanks in advance. -- Home: Ian Justman |UUCP:(1) My CP/M machine. |"One of the few 6612 Whitsett Drive | (2) My host. |die-hard CP/M North Highlands, CA |(1) !pacbell!sactoh0!ijsys!ianj |addicts left on this (916) 344-5360 95660|(2) !pacbell!sactoh0!ianj |planet"
mwilson@crash.cts.com (Marc Wilson) (02/20/90)
In article <2564@sactoh0.UUCP> ianj@sactoh0.UUCP (Ian R. Justman) writes: >I just got an Ampro Little Board Tuesday from a friend for $50. >This is just the board and software because I have the necessary >hardware, like a floppy disk and a power supply. The FD and PS I WHich Ampro? A LB/Z80, or LB/Z80+? The first has no capability for a hard drive without adding Ampro's host adapter ( goes under the Z80... sells for $99 ). The LB/Z80+ has the SCSI port installed already. You might be able to convince your parallel port to talk to the WD controller, but it's FAR easier to just go SCSI. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Marc Wilson ARPA: ...!crash!mwilson@nosc.mil ...!crash!pnet01!pro-sol!mwilson@nosc.mil UUCP: [ cbosgd | hp-sdd!hplabs | sdcsvax | nosc ]!crash!mwilson INET: mwilson@crash.CTS.COM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ianj@sactoh0.UUCP (Ian R. Justman) (02/21/90)
In article <1574@crash.cts.com>, mwilson@crash.cts.com (Marc Wilson) writes: > > WHich Ampro? A LB/Z80, or LB/Z80+? The first has no capability for > a hard drive without adding Ampro's host adapter ( goes under the Z80... > sells for $99 ). The LB/Z80+ has the SCSI port installed already. I think I have the one with just the Z80. And what kind of drives can be used with Ampro's host adapter (which I am willing to do because I don't know where to find the SCSI version of the LB)? The drive I presently have is a MiniScribe model 3012 and it came with a Western Digital WD1002 board. Any information would be helpful. Also, thanks for saying something about the LB+ whose specifics I didn't know before. I was wondering what differences there were. -- Home: Ian Justman |UUCP:(1) My CP/M machine. |"One of the few 6612 Whitsett Drive | (2) My host. |die-hard CP/M North Highlands, CA |(1) !pacbell!sactoh0!ijsys!ianj |addicts left on this (916) 344-5360 95660|(2) !pacbell!sactoh0!ianj |planet"
mwilson@crash.cts.com (Marc Wilson) (02/22/90)
The SCSI host adapter from Ampro gives you a true SCSI bus port.
It supports devices 0-7, can operate in either initiator or target mode, etc.
The NCR 5380 SCSI chip is used.
To this you need to connect a SCSI HD controller. Personally, I
recommend Adaptec products. I use an Adaptec 5500 controller ( which has
many, MANY more features than the BIOS supports ), but the 4000A will work
quite nicely. The BIOS directly supports the following:
Adaptec ACB400A ( although any Adaptec will work )
Shugart 1610
Xebec 1410/1410A
It also supports the following drives with embedded controllers:
Xebec OWL
These are what are mentioned in the documentation. The main
differences between controllers are usually in the format command, and in the
device initialize command ( what Adaptec calles Mode Select ). If you
need to, you can modify Ampro's format program to handle anything you want.
If you want to boot from the HD, you need an auto-initialize controller.
The ones currently supported by the SCSI ROM are the Adaptec and Shugart
controllers, along with the OWL. There is also a non-Ampro enhancement to the
ROM which supports the non-initialize controllers.
The host adapter is Ampro P/N A74007-C. They don't manufacture it
any more, so they're limited to stock on hand. When I bought mine ( end of
'88 ) Rick Lehrbaum told me "we only have a few left." Since then, I've heard
nothing.
I've used this LB/Z80 for over two years ( I bought it used in '87 ).
The guy I bought it from assembled it from the kit. He never had any problems,
either.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marc Wilson
ARPA: ...!crash!mwilson@nosc.mil
...!crash!pnet01!pro-sol!mwilson@nosc.mil
UUCP: [ cbosgd | hp-sdd!hplabs | sdcsvax | nosc ]!crash!mwilson
INET: mwilson@crash.CTS.COM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~wjc@ho5cad.ATT.COM (Bill Carpenter) (02/23/90)
On 22 Feb 90 09:51:33 GMT, mwilson@crash.cts.com (Marc Wilson) said: mwilson> The SCSI host adapter from Ampro gives you a true SCSI mwilson> bus port. It supports devices 0-7, can operate in either mwilson> initiator or target mode, etc. The NCR 5380 SCSI chip is mwilson> used. How much trouble would it be to get the Little Board SCSI to work with a SCSI tape drive? I'm sort of naive on the subject, but I reckon after you have the SCSI adaptor, it's mostly a matter of software. Has it already been done? -- Bill Carpenter att!ho5cad!wjc or attmail!bill
dbraun@cadev5.intel.com (Doug Braun ~) (02/24/90)
In article <WJC.90Feb22191955@hoswjc.ho5cad.ATT.COM> william_j_carpenter@ATT.COM (Bill Carpenter) writes: >How much trouble would it be to get the Little Board SCSI to work with >a SCSI tape drive? I'm sort of naive on the subject, but I reckon >after you have the SCSI adaptor, it's mostly a matter of software. >Has it already been done? I have a home-built host adapter on my home-build Z280 system, and I have used it to run a Memtec 20 Meg cassette tape drive with a SCSI controller card. It worked very well. (I now have the drive hooked up to a PC). The only thing is that these drives are streaming, so they like to get data in long bursts. I used a 32K buffer in a port of unix "tar", and it was very handy for backing up hard disks. I wish I had another drive, so I could swap tapes between the Z280 and the PC. Because I had already written a SCSI driver for the hard disk, it was easy to make it generic, to perform a SCSI transaction for any device. I.e: status = scsiop(busid, cptr, dptr, dlen); Where busid is 1 to 7, cptr points to the command bytes, dptr points to the data buffer, and dlen is size of the buffer. The routine figures out how long the commnd is, and which way the data is going. SCSI stuff is fun. (but ask me about my 9-track CP/M tape drive) Doug Braun Intel Corp CAD 408 765-4279 / decwrl \ | hplabs | -| oliveb |- !intelca!mipos3!cadev4!dbraun | amd | \ qantel / or: dbraun@cadev4.intel.com
mwilson@crash.cts.com (Marc Wilson) (02/24/90)
In article <WJC.90Feb22191955@hoswjc.ho5cad.ATT.COM> william_j_carpenter@ATT.COM (Bill Carpenter) writes: >How much trouble would it be to get the Little Board SCSI to work with >a SCSI tape drive? I'm sort of naive on the subject, but I reckon >after you have the SCSI adaptor, it's mostly a matter of software. >Has it already been done? There is software available from Ampro to do backups to a tape drive interfaced over the SCSI bus. I dunno how well it works; I haven't tried it 'cause I don't have a tape drive. If you want random access, I'd have to say no. Streaming tape? Almost certainly. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Marc Wilson ARPA: ...!crash!mwilson@nosc.mil ...!crash!pnet01!pro-sol!mwilson@nosc.mil UUCP: [ cbosgd | hp-sdd!hplabs | sdcsvax | nosc ]!crash!mwilson INET: mwilson@crash.CTS.COM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~