shair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Bob Shair) (05/18/91)
To summarize this announcement: The "Internal/External" SCSI adapters will now be able to attach a total of seven devices, no matter whether internal or external. It was previously limited to two external devices. All new machines will be shipped with this facility. Installed ones will be altered, at no charge, beginning late in June. Many users who don't wish to attach more than two external devices to "Internal/External" adapter will not require this. If you wish to have this engineering change made to your installed system, contact your friendly, neighborhood IBM Representative. This is especially important to owners of 320s and 320Hs, which have fewer internal devices. Bob SCSI DEVICE RESTRICTIONS REMOVED WITH NEW IBM TERMINATOR May 17, 1991 In response to a recognized requirement from the field, an AWD Engineer has developed an innovative SCSI bus terminator which uniquely conditions the SCSI bus to enable extended configurations. All RISC System/6000 systems shipped on or after May 17, 1991 will now support attachment of up to seven SCSI devices on the SCSI I/O controllers FC 2828 and FC 2829. The previ- ous restriction of no more than two external SCSI devices on any controller which also supports internal SCSI devices is now lifted for these systems. Further, if your customer has a previously-installed RISC System/6000 and wishes to attach additional external SCSI devices which would then cause it to violate the restriction for machines shipped prior to May 17, 1991, you should be aware that there is an "As Required" EC available for these earlier systems at no charge. Ask CE to search RETAIN under the appropriate Machine Type for "FPT TERM" to obtain the correct field bill for the As Required EC. The As Required EC should be available by late June 1991. This increase in SCSI attach capability can be especially critical for some configurations of the desktop Models 320 and 320H where Microchannel slot usage is tight, so a second SCSI card is not an option, but the customer requires three or more external devices such as tape, CD-ROM, or external disk in addition to internal SCSI disk drives. -- Bob Shair shair@chgvmic1.iinus1.ibm.com Scientific Computing Specialist SHAIR@UIUCVMD (bitnet) IBM Champaign