On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 3:21 PM, Rob Jarratt <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> wrote:
Can someone remind me what the formula is for working out whether a disk is
small enough for the older MicroVAX 3100s? I seem to remember it is an
absolute number of 512-byte blocks. I know it is about 1GB, but I am pretty
sure it can be slightly over, but I am never sure exactly how much you can
go over. I am always on the look out for disks small enough for these
machines.
If the restriction comes from the host only using SCSI Read(6)
commands then the limit is a 21-bit Logical Block Address (LBA) field.
SCSI Read(10), Read(12), and Read(16) have larger LBA fields.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI_Read_Commands
With a 21-bit LBA the host can access 2,097,152 blocks.
If those blocks are 512 bytes each that works out to a total of
1,073,741,824 bytes.
-Glen