*BSD News Article 25817


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From: burgess@hrd769.brooks.af.mil (Dave Burgess)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: which SCSI? (was: [NetBSD 0.9] UltraStor 24F supported?)
Date: 10 Jan 1994 15:34:28 -0600
Organization: Armstrong Laboratory, Brooks AFB, TX
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Message-ID: <2gshli$fqh@hrd769.brooks.af.mil>
References: <2gqcn0$1ge@explorer.clark.net> <michaelv.758177076@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hrd769.brooks.af.mil

In article <michaelv.758177076@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu>,
Michael L. VanLoon <michaelv@iastate.edu> wrote:
>In <2gqcn0$1ge@explorer.clark.net> ack@clark.net (Eric S. Hvozda) writes:
>
>>I don't see anything mentioning the 24F in the FAQ or INSTALL_NOTES on
>>sun-lamp, but I seem to remember seeing posts to the effect that it is.
>


You didn't look hard enough.  When I started coordinating the FAQ, all I had
was an Ultrastor24F.  It worked OK, but you had to configure it as an IDE/ESDI
controller.  The throughput was very respectable and it was a very reliable
card.  Of course, since it wasn't really a SCSI card at that point, stuff
like CD-ROM and tape were pretty much out of the question. :-(

I traded an Adaptec 1542A card for it, after tht card was supported, and I
was never disappointed  except that I had to remove 16Meg of main memory.
The upside was that CD-ROM and tape were possible.

I wrote to Ultrastor and got the programming specs for the Ultrastor 24F.  I
told them that I was developing a controller interface for a public domain
Unix OS, and the source needed to be releasable.  Even though I signed an
NDA, they said that it was not a problem.  I guess as long as you are up
front with them, it's OK with them.

From what I could see of the docs (and can discuss) the catch was that
the 34F code didn't interact correctly with the card number address (working
without a net here).  It was an EISA only sort of problem.

>>Is this true?
>

To use the ultrastor 24F in your EISA machine, configure the card to the 
specifications in your documentation for 'Booting SCO with the default
kernel.'  Instead of rebuilding your SCO kernel, just boot and use *BSD.

>>I see that the 14F and 34F are, but what about the 24F?  Also how well does
>>the BusTek 742 compared to the Apdatec 1742?  I was eyeing a 1742, but they
>>are getting harder to find nowawadays...
>
>I see questions like this all the time.  I think most of us have
>experience with only a limited amount of SCSI hardware.  Would someone
>in the know be kind enough to take a few minutes and publish a quick
>chart with all the major PC SCSI cards and a quick description of each
>(which is ISA, EISA, 8-bit, 16-bit, bus-mastering, floppy, no floppy,
>etc.).  Additionally, how they relate to each other, and how they're
>supported by NetBSD and FreeBSD.  I'm sure we'd all appreciate it...
>


Me too.

I think the problem you are going to find is the problem you identify in
your second sentence above.  I don't know that anyone has a universal
understanding the SCSI cards out there.

THere is a section in the FAQ reserved for just such a list.  I will 
gladly put whatever list gets put together in there.

Of course, you are NUTZ if you think I'M going to do it :-)...

-- 
TSgt Dave Burgess
NCOIC Applications Programming Branch
US Strategic Command, Offutt AFB, NE
burgessd@j64.stratcom.af.mil