ericz@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Eric Zamost) (09/08/90)
I recently purchased an AT-bus SCSI controller which was sold as
a Future Domain. It can address seven SCSI devices (6 disks and
a tape back up - why the distinction?) and (supposedly) four
floppies. It develops that this board is not made by Future
Domain, but only uses their chipset. Also, closer inspection
reveals that it is not really a 16-bit board - the AT-unique
portion of the connector only has 7 "fingers" - 2 are ground and
5 are interupt-select. To be "truly" a 16 bit board (in my mind,
at least) you have to send data 16 bits at a time.
My questions:
Is the Adaptec 1542B truly a 16 bit board (and how do other
people define "truly" in this context)?
How are the Adaptec 1542A and 1542B different, and what is the 16xx?
Can the Adaptec 1542x support 4 floppies?
Is it neccessary to buy special drivers for the Adaptec to
support unusual devices (tape backups, Bernoulli cartridge
systems, four floppies, etc.)?
Are there any other controllers I should be thinking about? (I
want the best performance I can get in the $200-300 price range,
integrated floppy support, and future versatility (Bernoulli?))
This "Future Domain" controller recognizes my Wren IV, but then
Disk Manager reports strange (and varying) numbers of heads and
cylinders. This makes me nervous -I expected it to report one
fictitious number and stick to it. Any comments?
Thanks,
Eric.
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| ericz@ucscb.ucsc.edu - Eric Zamost - (408) 426-9530 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------ed@maxed.amg.com (Ed Whittemore) (09/09/90)
In article <6704@darkstar.ucsc.edu> ericz@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Eric Zamost) writes: > >I recently purchased an AT-bus SCSI controller which was sold as >a Future Domain. It can address seven SCSI devices (6 disks and >a tape back up - why the distinction?) and (supposedly) four >floppies. It develops that this board is not made by Future >Domain, but only uses their chipset. Also, closer inspection >reveals that it is not really a 16-bit board - the AT-unique >portion of the connector only has 7 "fingers" - 2 are ground and >5 are interupt-select. To be "truly" a 16 bit board (in my mind, >at least) you have to send data 16 bits at a time. > > >My questions: >Is the Adaptec 1542B truly a 16 bit board (and how do other >people define "truly" in this context)? YES > >How are the Adaptec 1542A and 1542B different, and what is the 16xx? > They are functionally the same, the B card is the later rev and smaller. The 16xx is a microchannel card. >Can the Adaptec 1542x support 4 floppies? NO > >Is it neccessary to buy special drivers for the Adaptec to >support unusual devices (tape backups, Bernoulli cartridge >systems, four floppies, etc.)? For DOS the drivers should come with the SCSI devices you buy. For Unix, tape support is built in. > >Are there any other controllers I should be thinking about? (I >want the best performance I can get in the $200-300 price range, >integrated floppy support, and future versatility (Bernoulli?)) Of the three major SCSI 16 bit cards available the Future domain is relatively low performance, the Western Digital FASST card requires a driver just to recognize DOS drives, but is roughly equivalent in performance to, the Adaptec 154x cards which do not. -- Ed Whittemore uunet!maxed!ed ed@maxed.amg.com American Micro Group, Inc. 201-944-3293
apb@cbnewsj.att.com (Amrit Bains) (09/10/90)
In article <1990Sep08.180006.4132@maxed.amg.com>, ed@maxed.amg.com (Ed Whittemore) writes: > In article <6704@darkstar.ucsc.edu> ericz@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Eric Zamost) writes: > > > >I recently purchased an AT-bus SCSI controller which was sold as > >a Future Domain. It can address seven SCSI devices (6 disks and > >a tape back up - why the distinction?) and (supposedly) four > >floppies. It develops that this board is not made by Future > >Domain, but only uses their chipset. Also, closer inspection > >reveals that it is not really a 16-bit board - the AT-unique > >portion of the connector only has 7 "fingers" - 2 are ground and > >5 are interupt-select. To be "truly" a 16 bit board (in my mind, > >at least) you have to send data 16 bits at a time. > > > > > >My questions: > [....] stuff deleted [....] > >Are there any other controllers I should be thinking about? (I > >want the best performance I can get in the $200-300 price range, > >integrated floppy support, and future versatility (Bernoulli?)) > > Of the three major SCSI 16 bit cards available the Future domain > is relatively low performance, the Western Digital FASST card > requires a driver just to recognize DOS drives, but is This is incorrect. The WD7000 FASST card operates in two modes. 1. The SSI mode in which it requires the special DOS drivers that you talk about. 2. The OEM mode in which it operated without any device drivers in much the same way I suspect as the AHA CARD. I am using the card in the OEM mode and it works just fine. > roughly equivalent in performance to, the Adaptec 154x cards which do > not. > > -- > Ed Whittemore uunet!maxed!ed ed@maxed.amg.com > American Micro Group, Inc. 201-944-3293 Amrit Bains abains@attunix.att.com