8 May
2007
8 May
'07
11:27 p.m.
Subject: Re: DEC Pro380 disk drives
From: Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com>
Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 17:56:02 +0100
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
On 08/05/2007 15:53, Roger Ivie wrote:
Pete You have it correct 100%.
The RQDX1/2 are the same board and mostly interchageable depending on
firmware rev. It's a Quad width board.
RQDX3 is a smaller board (dual VS quad) and is fully compatable format
wise with VS2000.
Allison
On Mon, 7 May 2007, Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
That's incorrect; I suspect you're thinking of the RQDX3. The RQDX2 is
just a modified RQDX1, and it definitely uses the same controller. They
both put 18 sectors per track, and use the same format. You can take a
disk formatted on an RQDX1 and connect it to an RQDX2, though in some
cases the RQDX2 will alter some values on the disk and then it won't be
recognised properly if you move it back to the RQDX1 (depending on the
level of firmware on the two controllers).
The RQDX3 definitely *is* different, and you have to reformat hard
drives for that (and AFAIR *that's* the same format as VS2000). Can the drives be formatted on a VAXstation 2000
and moved to a PRO ?
(like you can do from a VS2000 to a PDP-11 (with RQDX3 ?))
I doubt it.
Folks have been talking about formatting on an RQDX1. The RQDX1 uses a
different format than that used by the RQDX2 and the VS2000. You can't
format a disk on an RQDX1 and use it in an RQDX2.
The RQDX2 was built around a single-chip disk controller, SMC's HDC9224.
The same controller was used in the VS2000. The RQDX1 had a hand-crafted
disk controller that used a slightly different format. Among other
things, an RQDX1 can stuff 18 sectors on a track whereas the RQDX2,
VS2000, and PCs for that matter can only do 17. --
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York