DEC ST506 Interface Adapter Part No 54-17003-01

Here's my personal notes on MFM formatting with the VS2000. Most was gleaned off the Internet; some I revised or improved myself. Can't remember the sources to give credit, sorry. You can set the interleave. Example: CDC WREN II #200232 xbnsiz:=54 - number of transfer blocks. All DEC's disks seem to use 54, regardless of capacity. dbnsiz:=31 - = (SURPUN*17) - XBNSIZ lbnsiz:=78115 - = first, take (Actual Cyls - 1) * SURPUN * 17 - (XBN+DBN). Then calc RBNs and subtract them. rbnsiz:=340 - = at least 0.2% of LBNSIZ surpun:=5 - number of heads (surfaces) cylpun:=925 - actual number of cylinders wrtprc:=128 - cyl to start write precomp. rctsiz:=4 - size of Replacement and Caching Table. rctnbr:=8 - number of copies of the RCT. DEC disks appear to always use 8. secitl:=1 - sec/sec interleave. 1:1. stsskw :=2 - sec/sec skew. All drives seem to use 2. ctcskw :=8 - cyl/cyl skew. Most DEC drives seem to use 8. mediai :=627327008 - media ID code. See "VS2000 Formatter.MHT" for explanation. Example: CDC WREN #200052 / 697 x 5 x 17 36mb XBNSIZ:=54 DBNSIZ:=31 LBNSIZ:=58900 RBNSIZ:=175 SURPUN:=5 CYLPUN:=697 WRTPRC:=348 RCTSIZ:=4 RCTNBR:=8 SECITL:=1 STSSKW:=2 CTCSKW:=8 MEDAI:=627327028 Example: IMI 5012H #200051 / 306 x 4 x 17 WrPre: 214 XBNSIZ:=54 DBNSIZ:=14 LBNSIZ:=20600 RBNSIZ:=72 SURPUN:=4 CYLPUN:=306 WRTPRC:=214 RCTSIZ:=4 RCTNBR:=8 SECITL:=1 STSSKW:=2 CTCSKW:=8 MEDAI:=627327027 Others: RD54 RD53 ST4097 ------ ------ ------ XBNSIZ 54 54 54 DBNSIZ 201 82 99 LBNSIZ 311256 138672 156060 RBNSIZ 609 280 306 SURPUN 15 8 9 CYLPUN 1221? 1020? 1021? WRTPRC 1221 1020 1024 RCTSIZ 7 5 5 RCTNBR 8 8 8 SECITL 1 1 1 STSSKW 2 2 2 CTCSKW 8 8 8 MEDAI 627327030 627327029 627327029 ===============================================================