D. Allen [CGL]) (10/06/89)
I see that the VS3520 is in a BA213 box (Q-bus), and it uses rz55 SCSI disks. If it can do it, perhaps my MVII/GPX and VS3200 can do it too if I bought the right Q-bus controller? Then, I could buy the newer, cheaper RZ disks for my Q-bus machines instead of the less cost-effective RD series disks, and I wouldn't have to throw the disks out when I retire the MVII machines. I could move rz55 disks around between my VS3100's and my Q-bus machines if/when the disks fail. I could even keep a spare on hand. Anyone have a VS3520/3540? Does it have a SCSI Q-bus disk controller that I can put in other Q-bus machines? -- -IAN! (Ian! D. Allen) idallen@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca idallen@watcgl.waterloo.edu 129.97.128.64 Computer Graphics Lab/University of Waterloo/Ontario/Canada
alan@shodha.dec.com ( Alan's Home for Wayward Notes File.) (10/07/89)
In article <11805@watcgl.waterloo.edu>, idallen@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Ian! D. Allen [CGL]) writes: > I see that the VS3520 is in a BA213 box (Q-bus), and it uses rz55 SCSI disks. > If it can do it, perhaps my MVII/GPX and VS3200 can do it too if I bought > the right Q-bus controller? If it used a Q-bus SCSI controller you *might* be able to do that. It doesn't. The VS3520/3540 use a more tightly coupled I/O module. I think it also has the Ethernet controller on it. > -- > -IAN! (Ian! D. Allen) idallen@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca idallen@watcgl.waterloo.edu > 129.97.128.64 Computer Graphics Lab/University of Waterloo/Ontario/Canada -- Alan Rollow alan@nabeth.enet.dec.com
Wiley_M_Sanders@cup.portal.com (10/11/89)
However, you can buy any number of Q-bus SCSI controllers and then slap pretty much whatever Random Cheapo SCSI Drive you want on that. Lotsa drives are probably cheaper than RZ-55's. Getting DEC to service your particular combination of random cheapo SCSI controller and random cheapo SCSI drive is another story. Plus, you wouldn't want your SCSI controller manufacturer to go out of business right before the ROM upgrade was necessary to maintain com- patibility with the latest monthly version of VMS DEC is sending out :-) ^ These are my overall impressions after having bid and installed a disk subsystem in my uVaxII. IMHO, it's a tossup right now between ESDI and SCSI, although the SCSI technology is moving forward faster, and, in my particular instance, DEC was less non-committal about servicing ESDI than SCSI. We got an ESDI system and I'm very happy with it so far. -w