mmcneill@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Michael Mcneill -Visualization) (12/14/90)
We've encountered two problems while trying to put some large SMD disks CDC 9720-2500, 2.5 GB) onto our 4D/240GTX. First, the disk controller appears to be capable of addressing only 2048 cylinders. Strangely enough, this limitation seems to be limited to the SGI revision of this controller. The SMD controllers Xylogics makes for other machines have the extended addressing to accomodate the new larger disks. Second, according to information obtained via the SGI Hotline, the current implementation of the disk volume header only allows for 597 defects per disk. We were able to eventually find two of these 2.5 GB disks with around 400 errors, even though the manufacturers spec is 1 error/MB. Does anyone know if and when SGI plans to support these larger disks? In a related question, does anyone know why a bad sector on an SMD disk causes the entire track to be mapped out versus just mapping out the bad sector? advTHANKSance............................................Mike ------ mmcneill@ncsa.uiuc.edu