jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond) (11/11/90)
This question is mostly aimed at Adaptec (Roy, you around?) but maybe
the rest of the net can help.
I was recently in a large chain PC store the other day trying to make an
emergency SCSI controller purchase. The store had the usual ST-02s and the
like and then one of the people in the service department pulled out an
Adaptec board labeled AHA1522. This is a half-card configuration with
a blue-million jumpers and a couple of ASIC chips.
The person in the service department said that they'd gotten some of
these cards to try but they were not going to handle them because Adaptec
would not provide them with documentation. They had NOTHING for the board,
not even an owner's manual.
I've since talked to someone else who said that the card is register
compatable with the 1542 and Roy's utilities should run. Not wanting to
risk my money, I passed on the deal. So my question is: What is this
card? How does it compare to the 1542? What is a good price for the card?
I told the person in the service department that I'd pose the question to
the net and see what you guys said. I'd love to be able to go back and
tell them that the card is good stuff and give them a copy of Roy's
utilities to use with it. It'd be nice to have a retail outlet here in
Atlanta that stocks this card for those little emergencies that arise.
Second, unrelated question:
The service manager at this store recommended a controller I've never heard
of. Since they did not carry the controller, I have no reason to suspect
the advice but I'd still like to hear from others. The controller is an
Always (brand) IN-2000. The manager claimed that it out-performed the
Adaptec controller (which one?) in their tests and that it comes with
drivers for Interactive Unix, DOS and Novell. He said that it is made
in America and is Good Stuff. Anyone heard of this beast?
John
--
John De Armond, WD4OQC | "Purveyors of Performance Products
Rapid Deployment System, Inc. | to the Trade " (tm)
Marietta, Ga |
{emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd | "Vote early, Vote often"jeff@birdsong.West.Sun.COM (Jeffrey H. Skaletsky - SSE Sun SFValley - 818-905-0200) (11/14/90)
In article <4748@rsiatl.UUCP> jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond) writes: >The service manager at this store recommended a controller I've never heard >of. Since they did not carry the controller, I have no reason to suspect >the advice but I'd still like to hear from others. The controller is an >Always (brand) IN-2000. The manager claimed that it out-performed the >Adaptec controller (which one?) in their tests and that it comes with >drivers for Interactive Unix, DOS and Novell. He said that it is made >in America and is Good Stuff. Anyone heard of this beast? I have one, but have not used it other than for testing a system with its built-in floppy controller (I'm awaiting delivery of my 330MB disk). Docs are okay, and it came with disks for DOS, Novell and SCO. (I'm checking now whether that's Xenix or Unix) My dealer told me that it's very fast compared to other common SCSI adapters, but I can't remember if he was also referring to the Adaptec. He (Tim Laren of Hacker Electronics of Chatsworth, Ca - 818-882-7980) told me that he's selling it for about $230-$240, I think. They told me a few weeks ago that they're just finishing up Interactive support, and had no plans as yet for ESIX. Always is in Westlake Village, CA (just west of the San Fernando Valley); their number is (818) 597-1400, and their Unix tech. person is Rich Wagner. So far, they've been pretty good in answering questions, etc. -Jeff -- Jeff Skaletsky N6TJO Sun Microsystems SF Valley/Gold Coast Dists. (818)905-0200 jeff.skaletsky@West.Sun.COM : jeff@poseur.jpl.nasa.gov : jeff@quake.sylmar.ca.us
dt4100c@medtron.medtronic.com (Derek Terveer) (11/20/90)
jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond) writes: >I was recently in a large chain PC store the other day trying to make an >emergency SCSI controller purchase. The store had the usual ST-02s and the >like and then one of the people in the service department pulled out an >Adaptec board labeled AHA1522. This is a half-card configuration with >a blue-million jumpers and a couple of ASIC chips. >I've since talked to someone else who said that the card is register >compatable with the 1542 and Roy's utilities should run. Not wanting to >risk my money, I passed on the deal. So my question is: What is this >card? How does it compare to the 1542? What is a good price for the card? I have heard conflicting information about this card. Supposedly, this is a non bus-mastering version of the 1542 SCSI controller card. I was told by someone, at adaptec ts, i believe, that the 1522 should look just like a 1542 to applications. I was told by Esix that the 1522 would require a different driver and that initially they were would come out with one in a month, but now they seem to have no plans to create one. I purchased a 1542a for my machine in order to "solve" my storage problems and to get a faster disk transfer rate (i thought that the mfm 50..80K/second was a bit *too* slow...). Unfortunately, my motherboard does not pass the bus-master test and Esix chokes and dies... So, i thought that a 1522 would fix the problem, since it doesn't use the DMA that fails on my board. (And no, don't tell me to tell the vendor that the board is broken -- i have already tried and they keep stubournly telling me that my board ".. does support SCSI." I've swapped out 2 boards with them. Sigh.) Anyway, if the DMA is controlled by the (software) SCSI driver, then i guess i'm out of luck with the 1522. If it is handled transparently by the card, then maybe it will work with Esix. Anyone know about this? Has anyone tried a 1522 with esix (or any other 5.3.2-type unix) with a motherboard that had previously failed the 1542[ab] bus-mastering test? Also, as an aside, i was told by the tech support guy at the place from which i purchased the 1542a that the 1542 A version can not be used on machines faster than 20MHz. This is really great, because i have a 25 MHz clone. I don't know if this is true or not. derek -- Derek "tigger" Terveer Just the facts, ma'am: det@medtronic.com
jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond) (11/22/90)
dt4100c@medtron.medtronic.com (Derek Terveer) writes: >Also, as an aside, i was told by the tech support guy at the place from >which i purchased the 1542a that the 1542 A version can not be used on machines >faster than 20MHz. This is really great, because i have a 25 MHz clone. >I don't know if this is true or not. Derek, Thanks for the info. I thought my posting had gotten lost, as NO ONE replied to it. I'm still hoping that someone from Adaptec will get on here and tell us difinitivly what the 1522 is. meanwhile, The 1542a works just fine in a 25 mhz machine - I'm typing on one now :-) It also works in a 33 mhz machine, as I feed a couple of sites that use them. And I know that the 1542b works in fast machines because that is what I sell them in. If all else fails for you, I KNOW the Magitronics board works well with ISC and the 1542. That's what I'm running now. They are imported by Liuski here in Atlanta and are very cheap. John -- John De Armond, WD4OQC | "Purveyors of Performance Products Rapid Deployment System, Inc. | to the Trade " (tm) Marietta, Ga | {emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd | "Vote early, Vote often"
ires@kaspar.UUCP (Bruce R. Larson) (11/23/90)
In article <1990Nov20.021203.3045@medtron.medtronic.com>, dt4100c@medtron.medtronic.com (Derek Terveer) writes: > jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond) writes: > > >I was recently in a large chain PC store the other day trying to make an > >emergency SCSI controller purchase. The store had the usual ST-02s and the > >like and then one of the people in the service department pulled out an > >Adaptec board labeled AHA1522. This is a half-card configuration with > >a blue-million jumpers and a couple of ASIC chips. > > I have heard conflicting information about this card. Supposedly, this is > a non bus-mastering version of the 1542 SCSI controller card. I was told by > someone, at adaptec ts, i believe, that the 1522 should look just like a 1542 > to applications. I was told by Esix that the 1522 would require a different > driver and that initially they were would come out with one in a month, but > now they seem to have no plans to create one. > I meant to respond to John originally, but I didn't get the chance. I got one of the first 1522's shipped to the East coast to test as a non-busmastering, inexpensive host adapter for non-busmastering motherboards. My Everex Step/33 does not support busmastering, but it been running very faithfully (and faster than a scared rabbit) with a 1542A for over a year. When I swapped in the 1522, the system would boot but exit with an error something like `srcmount error' when trying to mount the filesystems, so I presume that at least on my machine it will not act as a plug-in replacement for the 1542A. I tried this with 386/ix 2.0.2 and ISC UNIC 2.2. An intersting note is that I got more performance out of my disks under DOS with the 1522 than with the 1542. Am I paying a penalty due to the absence of busmaster support? Probably. Final note is that I seem to recall that Adaptec introduced the 1522 as a top quality DOS-based host adapter that would retail for under $200. It could be just the thing for those clone motherboards that will be dedicated to DOS for life. I think that the flourishing of IDE drives took the wind out of their sales. Bruce R. Larson Integral Resources, Milton MA Internet: ires.com!blarson@cs.umb.edu Uucp: ..!cs.umb.edu!ires.com!blarson
neese@adaptx1.UUCP (11/24/90)
>/* ---------- "Re: Adaptec 1522 question" ---------- */ >jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond) writes: > >>I was recently in a large chain PC store the other day trying to make an >>emergency SCSI controller purchase. The store had the usual ST-02s and the >>like and then one of the people in the service department pulled out an >>Adaptec board labeled AHA1522. This is a half-card configuration with >>a blue-million jumpers and a couple of ASIC chips. > >>I've since talked to someone else who said that the card is register >>compatable with the 1542 and Roy's utilities should run. Not wanting to >>risk my money, I passed on the deal. So my question is: What is this >>card? How does it compare to the 1542? What is a good price for the card? Here's the poop. The 1522 is a PIO SCSI adapter. It is in no way shape or form anywhere close to the 1542 adapter. It is not software compatible. It is not hardware compatible either. The intent of this adapter was to provide a lower cost, high performance solution for MS-DOS. The 1542 is a nice adapter, but it is overkill for MS-DOS. The 1542 cannot be fully utilized under MS-DOS, but only under those operating environments that support true multi-threading. My utilities will not work with the 1522. I am doing a port of them for the 1522, but not complete yet. Roy Neese Adaptec Senior SCSI Applications Engineer UUCP @ neese@adaptex uunet!cs.utexas.edu!utacfd! {nominil,merch,cpe}!adaptex!neese uunet!mlite!adaptex!neese
jhl@kira.uucp (John Lawitzke) (11/27/90)
From article <17@kaspar.UUCP>, by ires@kaspar.UUCP (Bruce R. Larson): $> >I was recently in a large chain PC store the other day trying to make an $> >emergency SCSI controller purchase. The store had the usual ST-02s and the $> >like and then one of the people in the service department pulled out an $> >Adaptec board labeled AHA1522. This is a half-card configuration with $> >a blue-million jumpers and a couple of ASIC chips. $> $> I have heard conflicting information about this card. Supposedly, this is $> a non bus-mastering version of the 1542 SCSI controller card. I was told by $> someone, at adaptec ts, i believe, that the 1522 should look just like a 1542 $> to applications. I was told by Esix that the 1522 would require a different $> driver and that initially they were would come out with one in a month, but $> now they seem to have no plans to create one. The Adpatec 1522 is definitely NOT software compatible with the Adpatec 1542. The 1522 is based on their new 6260 chip which combines the old 6250 and front end chip used on the 1542. The 1542 also has a 8085 microcontroller that controls the 6250 and friend. On the 1522 the host processor talks directly to the 6260. Therefore, for Unix, OS/2, Novell, et al you need a completely new driver for the 1522. Adaptec has a fairly complete set of drivers out for the 1522. SCO Unix should have 1522 support out of the box sometime in the next six months. -- j |%|John Lawitzke, Dale Computer Corp., R&D |%|UUCP: uunet!mailrus!sharkey!dale1!jhl |%| or: uunet!frith!dale1!jhl Inquiring minds just wondering. |%|Internet: jhl@frith.egr.msu.edu