roode@orion.cf.uci.edu (Dana Roode) (10/03/88)
We need to add some additional disc to our Sequent Symmetry system,
and are wondering if it makes sense to look into third party
disc. Does anyone at other Sequent sites have specific experience
in using non-Sequent disc?
Dana Roode
UC Irvine Computing Facility
--
Dana Roodepeter@clsib21.UUCP (Peter Craine) (10/04/88)
In article <1049@orion.cf.uci.edu>, roode@orion.cf.uci.edu (Dana Roode) writes: > We need to add some additional disc to our Sequent Symmetry system, > and are wondering if it makes sense to look into third party > disc. Does anyone at other Sequent sites have specific experience > in using non-Sequent disc? > > Dana Roode > UC Irvine Computing Facility > > -- > Dana Roode We at CLSI (a Sequent OEM) have added several of the CDC disks: 9715 - 340 MB (FSD) 9771 - 800 MB (XMD) 9720 - 368 MB and 850 MB (EMD) We will soon be working on the 9720 series 1.2 Gig drive. These drives work very well on the DCC (firmware version 12 or later). BUT!!!! The DCC is a VERY intelligent controller. So intelligent, you have to be intimately familiar with it and the drive to get the timing right. We had to take a three-day course from Sequent to figure this whole thing out. Let's just say that adding drives is a non-trivial project. Of course, theoretically, you could add any SMD-interface drive to the DCC if you had enough information. Sequent supports many of the Fujitsu drives. These drives are (among) the best on the market (in terms of reliability). [forgive the editorializing here; I've been a fan of Fuji for some time]. I hope these idle wanderings of the mind help. If I can help you with specific questions, send me some mail. Peter Craine ..!harvard!bbn!clsib21!peter [bah! who needs a .signature]
rich@hacgate.scg.hac.com (Rich Loo) (10/04/88)
In article <1049@orion.cf.uci.edu> roode@orion.cf.uci.edu (Dana Roode) writes: >We need to add some additional disc to our Sequent Symmetry system, >and are wondering if it makes sense to look into third party >disc. Does anyone at other Sequent sites have specific experience >in using non-Sequent disc? > > Dana Roode > UC Irvine Computing Facility > >-- >Dana Roode We use a lot of System Industries equipment on our Symmetry S81 (upgraded from a Balance 21k). As far as disk drives go, we have used the SI83, SI93, Swallows and Eagles from SI with no problems. The SI83 is a 690 megabyte (unformatted) dual density Swallow that fits two to a tray 1/2 the height of an Eagle (so 4 SI83s will fit in the footprint of an Eagle). The SI93 is actually a NEC D2363 (1.132 GB unformatted). Two of these will fit in the footprint of an Eagle. Access times for the SI83 and SI93 are 16 ms and 15 ms respectively. The SI Swallows and Eagles are identical to what Sequent supplies. We had to update the partition table of the zd disk driver (3.0.4 on up) to make it work with the NEC drive (no source needed). The SI83 will work with the stock 3.0.4 on up. Right now we have 4 SI83s, 8 SI93s, 1 Sequent Swallow and 1 SI Swallow (as a backup for the one Sequent disk), about 11 gigabytes of disk space. The only drawbacks are that we have yet to figure out how to run Sequent's disk diagnostics on the SI83 or SI93 and it takes 1/2 the night to format an NEC drive. We've also interfaced the SI STC tri-density 125 ips 9-track tape drive and SI line printer (a Fujitsu M3043) on the Symmetry. If anyone is interested in any of this, drop me a line. I'd also like to know what other 3rd party equipment people are using on their Symmetry or Balance. Richard Loo UUCP: ..!{oberon,elroy}!hacgate!rich (213) 648-0239 Internet: rich@hacgate.scg.hac.com Hughes Aircraft Company PO Box 92919 S65/J305 Los Angeles, Ca 90009
ronc@fai.UUCP (Ronald O. Christian) (10/05/88)
In article <919@clsib21.UUCP> peter@clsib21.UUCP (Peter Craine) writes: >Sequent supports many of the Fujitsu drives. These drives are (among) the >best on the market (in terms of reliability). [forgive the editorializing >here; I've been a fan of Fuji for some time]. Ahem! Fuji makes film, not disk drives. Ron -- Ronald O. Christian (Fujitsu America Inc., San Jose, Calif.) {amdahl, pyramid, sun, unisoft, uunet}!fai!ronc -or- ronc@fai.com Calling all Fujitsu Usenet sites! Contact fai!ronc or ronc@fai.com to establish uucp connection.
kcs@j.cc.purdue.edu (Kevin C. Smallwood) (10/05/88)
In article <2400024@kailand> pwolfe@kailand.KAI.COM writes: > >One problem (detailed in a talk given by Purdue University at the 1987 >Sequent User's Group meeting) is that the disk format programs Sequent >delivers has the drive parameters hard coded in, instead of reading them from >a user-editable table. So even if you know all the information that the format >program needs, you need the *source* code to be able to add drives. This >eliminated any chance we had for adding non-supported drives. This is no longer true. In the *binary* distribution of the DYNIX V3.0, the proper files are available. If you look in /usr/sys/stand/conf_zdc.c, you will find the table that we used to have to change by only having the source code available. In fact, Sequent now has a Makefile available in /usr/sys/stand to remake the stand-alone programs (like the formatter -- zdformat -- if you plan to boot off of the device, also remake "boot" and "zdboot" -- there are other caveats if you are interested). In conf_zdc.c, you need to come up with the magic configuration numbers that are described in the zdinfo structure (described in /usr/sys/stand/zdc.h -- but the most important chunk -- zdcdd -- is described in /usr/sys/zdc/zdc.h). One of the Sequent systems (this happened to be a Symmetry) at Purdue (the Department of Computer Science) was able to add support for a CDC 9766 essentially following the directions that Mike Marsh and I laid out in the paper with only the "binary" distribution (not source code) with DYNIX V3.0, so I know it is now possible. Thanks to Sequent for adding this support! Kevin C. Smallwood Internet: kcs@j.cc.purdue.edu Manager of UNIX Systems UUCP: ...!{pur-ee,purdue}!kcs Purdue University Computing Center