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
9 May
9 May
12:44 p.m.
On 5/8/07, Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> wrote:
The RQDX1/2 are the same board and mostly
interchageable depending on
firmware rev. It's a Quad width board.
What are the essential differences between an RQDX1 and RQDX2?
AFAICR, the RQDX1 doesn't pass grant below it so it *must* be the last
board on the bus, but the RQDX2 doesn't have that limitation; and, the
RQDX2, I think, knows about one or two more drives than the RQDX1. a)
is that correct? and b) is that all?
I have at least one RQDX1, several RQDX3, and I don't think I have any
RQDX2, but one never knows what one will stumble across.
-ethan
10 May
10 May
7:25 a.m.
On 09/05/2007 13:44, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On 5/8/07, Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net>
wrote:
Correct, and as far as I remember, that's about all a user will see, bar
some tweaks to the firmware for bug fixes or efficiency. According to
the DEC docs, an RQDX1 can only support 2 hard drives whereas an RQDX2
can support 4, but I suspect (never tried) that's a firmware issue. An
RQDX2 has one or two resistors and a diode (maybe one or two other bits)
that the RQDX1 doesn't have, in the top right corner of the board. Of
course if it's a genuine RQDX2 it should also have -YB on the handle.
The firmware (from a user, or perhaps I should say OS or CPU, point of
view) is in two parts, one part being the MSCP-related stuff and the
other part being diagnostics, which are used for things like formatting
(there's no formatter program built in but it's the DUP routines that
are used by the XXDP formatter), bad block replacement and determining
drive sizes etc. The RQDX1/2 have the drive geometry tables, used when
the drive is online, in the card firmware not on the drive, and they're
used to do a series of sniffer tests when the systems starts, which is
why you can't just use any random drive with them. Some versions even
do odd checks for RX50s (like flipping the side select to see if it
alters the state of Trk00, and checking what happens to READY when you
toggle MotorOn).
There are four main versions of the firmware for RQDX1/2 and they
support different drives:
23-238/239 V7.0 for RQDX1 supports RX50, RD51
23-264/256 V8.0 for RQDX1 reliablity bugfixes
23-042/043 V9.0 for RQDX1 adds RD52 support
23-172/173 V9.0E for RQDX1 bug fixes for reliability
23-178/179 V10.0D RQDX2 adds RD53 support
23-188/189 V10.0E RQDX2 bug fixes
I'm fairly sure V10.0 works in an RQDX1 despite being intended for the
later revision, because I think one of mine is running like that. IIRC
V9.0E also added support for some additional drive makes for the RD52,
by altering the sniffer boot.
If you change the firmware for a later revision, in some cases the
controller will restructure the RCT/FCT tables which are kept on the
disk - these are the Replacement and Cacheing Table and the Format
Control Table which essentially hold bad block replacement data and some
data about the disk type - and then if you revert to older firmware, it
won't understand the RCT/FCT and will refuse to put the drive online
until it's reformatted. Apart from that, though, the actual formats are
the same, or at least interchangeable.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
The RQDX1/2 are the same board and mostly
interchageable depending on
firmware rev. It's a Quad width board.
What are the essential differences between an RQDX1 and RQDX2?
AFAICR, the RQDX1 doesn't pass grant below it so it *must* be the last
board on the bus, but the RQDX2 doesn't have that limitation; and, the
RQDX2, I think, knows about one or two more drives than the RQDX1. a)
is that correct? and b) is that all?
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ajp166＠bellatlantic.net -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
pete＠dunnington.plus.com