brent@uwovax.uwo.ca (Brent Sterner) (01/31/91)
The following is the text of a posting I made to comp.os.vms. (No snide
remarks about the suitability of that forum please; it does appear that there
is interest lurking out there but no "reply" information has come forward as
yet.) So please consider this a tardy cross-post, and if you can follow up
with something useful, please include "those guys" as well. If you send
anything to me personally, I will summarize. Thanks. Brent.
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Hi all. This is a query about the potential performance of SCSI devices.
I have a VAX 6000 model 430 connected to an HSC50 with one power supply,
one tape channel (2 tapes as master/slave), and two disk channels (8 disks
of various capacity totalling 7.5 gig). In short, the HSC is half populated.
Maintenance costs for this older technology is pretty high. I anticipate
the need for more disk capacity in perhaps the next six months. I'm starting
to look at alternatives for adding or exchanging disk. I'd also like to add
4mm or 8mm for local disk backups.
I'm aware of several soon-to-be BI-to-SCSI interface boards. Preliminary
pricing looks pretty good. The BI is also attractive from the perspective
of connecting tape cartridges at less cost than an HSC or BI connection. The
possibility of inexpensive optical and/or other peripherals exists as well. So
this approach makes some strategic sense as well as cost sense.
But I have concers about performance. One offering will connect one BI
port to seven SCSI ports. If I fill all 7 ports with 1 gig disks, how well
can I expect them to perform (relative to my HSC configuration). Are there
other alternatives for growth that make better sense than SCSI?
Please post or email to me. (This area may be of interest to others.)
Thanks, b.
--
Brent Sterner Technical Support Manager, Academic Systems
Fast: <BRENT@uwo.ca> <BRENT@UWOVAX.BITNET>
<129.100.2.13> Telephone (519)661-2151 x6036
Slow: Computing & Communications Services, Natural Sciences Building
The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7