[comp.unix.aix] 3rd party disk/tape on RS/6000?

leuthold@atmo1.atmo.arizona.edu (05/01/91)

I'm sure this has already been asked, but, I've just begun to read this group.
Is it possible to attach 3rd party SCSI disks to a RS/6000? (Model 550)  How
about Exabyte 8mm drives?  Thanks and sorry if this has been gone over before.
(reply to email if you wish)

Mike Leuthold
leuthold@atmo1.atmo.arizona.edu

CALT@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (05/01/91)

Yes, we have HP 97540T/P series 5.25-inch Winchester Disk Drives working
with our RS/6000 530.

But I couldn't find out any way to have my Exbyte external 8mm tape drive
worked with my RS/6000 machines. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Ching Shih
shih@cithex.bitnet
shih@cithe1.cithep.caltech.edu

woan@exeter.austin.ibm.com (Ronald S Woan) (05/01/91)

In article <91120.164433CALT@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> CALT@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU writes:
>Yes, we have HP 97540T/P series 5.25-inch Winchester Disk Drives working
>with our RS/6000 530.
>
>But I couldn't find out any way to have my Exbyte external 8mm tape drive
>worked with my RS/6000 machines. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

You might want to check with:
Chantal Systems Corp.
(619) 452-0975

They are reportedly selling a package of device drivers for third party drives.

-- 
+-----All Views Expressed Are My Own And Are Not Necessarily Shared By------+
+------------------------------My Employer----------------------------------+
+ Ronald S. Woan                woan@cactus.org or woan@austin.vnet.ibm.com +
+ other email addresses             Prodigy: XTCR74A Compuserve: 73530,2537 +

gary@chpc.utexas.edu (Gary Smith) (05/01/91)

In article <1991Apr30.115308.1@atmo1.atmo.arizona.edu>, leuthold@atmo1.atmo.arizona.edu writes:
|> I'm sure this has already been asked, but, I've just begun to read this group.
|> Is it possible to attach 3rd party SCSI disks to a RS/6000? (Model 550)  How
|> about Exabyte 8mm drives?  Thanks and sorry if this has been gone over before.
|> (reply to email if you wish)
|> 
|> Mike Leuthold
|> leuthold@atmo1.atmo.arizona.edu
Mike,
I'm not sure why, but I posted similar questions several times two
months ago and never received any replies.  However, I did determine
that Seagate WREN-7`s were being used quite regularly on RS/6000's
and that IBM's driver software required no modifications for their
use.  I'm looking into the higher performance Seagate Elite-1's now
and will have 6 gigabytes of them here for evaluation soon.  The new
Seagate Elites spin at 5400 RPM, thus average rotational latency of
only 5.6 milliseconds, have a mean seek time of 11.5 milliseconds,
and a transfer rate that varies from 3-4.5 megabytes per second due
to ZBR coding.  Call or send me email for any further details.
-- 
Randolph Gary Smith                       Internet: gary@chpc.utexas.edu
Systems Group                             Phonenet: (512) 471-2411
Center for High Performance Computing     Snailnet: 10100 Burnet Road
The University of Texas System                      Austin, Texas 78758-4497

ets@wrkgrp.COM (Edward T Spire) (05/01/91)

In article <1991Apr30.115308.1@atmo1.atmo.arizona.edu> leuthold@atmo1.atmo.arizona.edu writes:
>I'm sure this has already been asked, but, I've just begun to read this group.
>Is it possible to attach 3rd party SCSI disks to a RS/6000? (Model 550)  How
>about Exabyte 8mm drives?  Thanks and sorry if this has been gone over before.
>(reply to email if you wish)

I put a 650 meg Wren 6 on a 320, absolutely no problem!  Got it from Workstations Plus,
415-351-2661.  Total cost $2,530, including special cable.

Now what I need is an affordable 1/4" tape drive.  My system came pre-loaded, and it's
time to upgrade to 3003, and I don't want to load 18 hours worth of diskettes...

========================================================================

Ed Spire                           email: ets@wrkgrp.com      (on uunet)
The Workstation Group              voice: 800-228-0255
6300 River Road, Suite 700            or  708-696-4800
Rosemont, Illinois  60018            fax: 708-696-2277

sck@watson.ibm.com (Scott C. Kennedy) (05/02/91)

We have been using Seagate Elite in our 530, 540, 550 and 930s with no
problems, except that the diagnostics do not test them , in fact they are
reported as a problem some times, yet the test fine on other systems.
 
 I would recommend getting the 5 year warranty with your drives just becuase
it is a smart idea.

Note: This is NOT a product endorsement, this is a statement of fact. (to
keep legal types happy)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott C. Kennedy (sck@watson.ibm.com)     | "All we are saying ...
Distributed High Performance Computing    |  is give peace a chance..." 
I.B.M. Thomas J. Watson Research Facility | John Lennon - Dec. 8, 1980
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott C. Kennedy (sck@watson.ibm.com)     | "All we are saying ...
Distributed High Performance Computing    |  is give peace a chance..." 
I.B.M. Thomas J. Watson Research Facility | John Lennon - Dec. 8, 1980
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andreas.Kaiser@f7014.n244.z2.stgt.sub.org (Andreas Kaiser) (05/02/91)

 >Is it possible to attach 3rd party SCSI disks to a RS/6000? 
 >(Model 550)  How

Yes, at least on a 320 with SCSI controller. I don't know if it is possible to *replace* the internal drive by a 3rd party product, since when I tried this, the tape-booted system refused to install on the disk, but it runs fine with a 1GB Wren VII as secondary disk (which has double capacity and costs about half of IBMs largest disk drive). 

IBM's docs tell something about external SCSI connections beeing limited to 2 devices, when both internal and external SCSI devices are installed (they don't tell a reason), but this obviously is not an enforced limitation, since we have 3 external drives installed.

I tested an original Tandberg 3660 tape on the RS/6000, which is mechanically identical to the drive from IBM, but it didn't work. It did rewind but no other commands were possible ("the system call received a parameter, that is not valid"). The reason might be, that IBM's tape has another firmware (the Tandberg version does not support ECC) and the SCSI driver on the 6000 perhaps requires some special fields in the SCSI commands. Since the Tandberg drive is SCSI-1 compatible (don't know about SCSI-2 since







 I have not found the standard yet), the 6000 is not SCSI-1 compatible, concerning streaming tape drives. You'd better be careful when bying a 3rd party gigabyte tape drive.

                Gruss, Andreas

 * Origin: kaiser@ananke.stgt.sub.org - Stuttgart FRG (2:244/7014)