26 Mar
2011
26 Mar
'11
12:04 p.m.
So, in a recent pile-o-stuff, I acquired this SCSI box. The box itself is a generic two
bay SCSI enclosure, but inside is mounted some kind of bus interface devices. It's a
single circuit board, on a frame that mounts in a half height 5 1/4" bay. The face
has a little two line LCD, and some buttons and lights. The board itself is made by CMD.
Seems to be model CSB-2200/SDS.
The board has what appears to be a SCSI input, and two SCSI outputs. The board contains
three NCR 53C90B SCSI chips. Powering the device up, it announces itself as SCEA/S on the
LCD.
Now, from fiddling with the thing, and looking at what it contains, it *appears* to be
some sort of SCSI-SCSI bridge, communicating with two separate busses, and allowing one
external bus to use them. But I don't know. Searching on the model number have failed
to turn up a manual. Searches for SCEA/S invariably turns up articles about various
lawsuits that Sony Computer Entertainment of America have filed against their customers
for using devices they purchased in ways that Sony doesn't like.
So. Any ideas? I took some pictures:
http://i.imgur.com/o9X6s.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/TzV67.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SQN0b.jpg
-Ian
27 Mar
27 Mar
4:35 a.m.
On 3/26/11 11:04 AM, "Mr Ian Primus" <ian_primus at yahoo.com> wrote:
So, in a recent pile-o-stuff, I acquired this SCSI
box. The box itself is a
generic two bay SCSI enclosure, but inside is mounted some kind of bus
interface devices. It's a single circuit board, on a frame that mounts in a
half height 5 1/4" bay. The face has a little two line LCD, and some buttons
and lights. The board itself is made by CMD. Seems to be model CSB-2200/SDS.
The board has what appears to be a SCSI input, and two SCSI outputs. The board
contains three NCR 53C90B SCSI chips. Powering the device up, it announces
itself as SCEA/S on the LCD.
It looks familiar. I've usually come across them in 9 bay chassis, with a
SCSI in and 8 devices (0-7) in the chassis, I'm pretty sure that it is a
Raid controller that presents a single drive on the main SCSI channel.
5:20 a.m.
On Sunday 27 March 2011 07:35:30 am Geoffrey Reed wrote:
On 3/26/11 11:04 AM, "Mr Ian Primus" <ian_primus at yahoo.com> wrote:
It's an interesting-looking gadget, to be sure. What I'd do is connect it to a
linux box and see what the system saw...
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
So, in a recent pile-o-stuff, I acquired this
SCSI box. The box itself is a
generic two bay SCSI enclosure, but inside is mounted some kind of bus
interface devices. It's a single circuit board, on a frame that mounts in a
half height 5 1/4" bay. The face has a little two line LCD, and some buttons
and lights. The board itself is made by CMD. Seems to be model CSB-2200/SDS.
The board has what appears to be a SCSI input, and two SCSI outputs. The board
contains three NCR 53C90B SCSI chips. Powering the device up, it announces
itself as SCEA/S on the LCD.
It looks familiar. I've usually come across them in 9 bay chassis, with a
SCSI in and 8 devices (0-7) in the chassis, I'm pretty sure that it is a
Raid controller that presents a single drive on the main SCSI channel. 
7:16 a.m.
Yupper... worked with em years ago on a Vax 4000/700... SCSI to DSSI adapter... I had 7
drives and this unit in a tower box and it attached to the Vax via DSSI... pretty cool
unit.
On Mar 26, 2011, at 3:04 PM, Mr Ian Primus wrote:
So, in a recent pile-o-stuff, I acquired this SCSI
box. The box itself is a generic two bay SCSI enclosure, but inside is mounted some kind
of bus interface devices. It's a single circuit board, on a frame that mounts in a
half height 5 1/4" bay. The face has a little two line LCD, and some buttons and
lights. The board itself is made by CMD. Seems to be model CSB-2200/SDS.
The board has what appears to be a SCSI input, and two SCSI outputs. The board contains
three NCR 53C90B SCSI chips. Powering the device up, it announces itself as SCEA/S on the
LCD.
Now, from fiddling with the thing, and looking at what it contains, it *appears* to be
some sort of SCSI-SCSI bridge, communicating with two separate busses, and allowing one
external bus to use them. But I don't know. Searching on the model number have failed
to turn up a manual. Searches for SCEA/S invariably turns up articles about various
lawsuits that Sony Computer Entertainment of America have filed against their customers
for using devices they purchased in ways that Sony doesn't like.
So. Any ideas? I took some pictures:
http://i.imgur.com/o9X6s.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/TzV67.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SQN0b.jpg
-Ian
David Barnes
davebarnes AT roadrunner DOT com
OpenVMS , Tru64 , Solaris , Linux , OS X , SGI Irix
'Making a movie is like asking a question, and when you finish, the movie itself is
the answer.' - Francis Ford Coppola
28 Mar
28 Mar
8:50 a.m.
That would be surprising, as the PCB photo shows 53C90Bs on both
sides. Can the 53C90B be coaxed into doing DSSI? If so, I wasn't aware
of it.
-Dave
On 3/27/11 10:16 AM, David Barnes wrote:
Yupper... worked with em years ago on a Vax
4000/700... SCSI to DSSI adapter... I had 7 drives and this unit in a tower box and it
attached to the Vax via DSSI... pretty cool unit.
On Mar 26, 2011, at 3:04 PM, Mr Ian Primus wrote:
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
So, in a recent pile-o-stuff, I acquired this
SCSI box. The box itself is a generic two bay SCSI enclosure, but inside is mounted some
kind of bus interface devices. It's a single circuit board, on a frame that mounts in
a half height 5 1/4" bay. The face has a little two line LCD, and some buttons and
lights. The board itself is made by CMD. Seems to be model CSB-2200/SDS.
The board has what appears to be a SCSI input, and two SCSI outputs. The board contains
three NCR 53C90B SCSI chips. Powering the device up, it announces itself as SCEA/S on the
LCD.
Now, from fiddling with the thing, and looking at what it contains, it *appears* to be
some sort of SCSI-SCSI bridge, communicating with two separate busses, and allowing one
external bus to use them. But I don't know. Searching on the model number have failed
to turn up a manual. Searches for SCEA/S invariably turns up articles about various
lawsuits that Sony Computer Entertainment of America have filed against their customers
for using devices they purchased in ways that Sony doesn't like.
So. Any ideas? I took some pictures:
http://i.imgur.com/o9X6s.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/TzV67.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SQN0b.jpg
-Ian
David Barnes
davebarnes AT roadrunner DOT com
OpenVMS , Tru64 , Solaris , Linux , OS X , SGI Irix
'Making a movie is like asking a question, and when you finish, the movie itself is
the answer.' - Francis Ford Coppola
29 Mar
29 Mar
10:50 a.m.
On Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:50:01 -0400
Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
Can the 53C90B be coaxed into doing DSSI?
The
PCI DSSI adapters (KFPSA?), that I got with an AlphaServer once
uppon a time long gone, contained NCR 53C825 SCSI processors. AFAIK
those chips include a complete RISC microcontroler and can be tought
to talk neary any "language". That AlphaServer was accompanied by a
"Low Boy". It was filled with Storage Shelfes that carried those "jet
engine" 4 GB Seagate Baracuda SCSI disks and a couple of HSZ50.
Incredible noise... Ahhh, times...
--
\end{Jochen}
\ref{http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/}
12:12 p.m.
On 3/29/11 1:50 PM, Jochen Kunz wrote:
On Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:50:01 -0400
Dave McGuire<mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
Sweet machine. I know the later chips are programmable, but the
53C90B is a very old design, and I didn't think the built-in processor
was introduced that early.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Can the 53C90B be coaxed into doing DSSI?
The PCI DSSI adapters (KFPSA?), that I got with an AlphaServer once
uppon a time long gone, contained NCR 53C825 SCSI processors. AFAIK
those chips include a complete RISC microcontroler and can be tought
to talk neary any "language". That AlphaServer was accompanied by a
"Low Boy". It was filled with Storage Shelfes that carried those "jet
engine" 4 GB Seagate Baracuda SCSI disks and a couple of HSZ50.
Incredible noise... Ahhh, times... 
9:21 a.m.
On 3/26/11 3:04 PM, Mr Ian Primus wrote:
So, in a recent pile-o-stuff, I acquired this SCSI
box. The box
itself is a generic two bay SCSI enclosure, but inside is mounted
some kind of bus interface devices. It's a single circuit board, on a
frame that mounts in a half height 5 1/4" bay. The face has a little
two line LCD, and some buttons and lights. The board itself is made
by CMD. Seems to be model CSB-2200/SDS.
The board has what appears to be a SCSI input, and two SCSI outputs.
The board contains three NCR 53C90B SCSI chips. Powering the device
up, it announces itself as SCEA/S on the LCD.
Now, from fiddling with the thing, and looking at what it contains,
it *appears* to be some sort of SCSI-SCSI bridge, communicating with
two separate busses, and allowing one external bus to use them. But I
don't know. Searching on the model number have failed to turn up a
manual. Searches for SCEA/S invariably turns up articles about
various lawsuits that Sony Computer Entertainment of America have
filed against their customers for using devices they purchased in
ways that Sony doesn't like.
So. Any ideas? I took some pictures:
http://i.imgur.com/o9X6s.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/TzV67.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SQN0b.jpg
I concur with the other folks who suggested that this may be a
SCSI<->SCSI RAID controller. The eight LEDs on the front panel that
look like activity indicators, the "FAULT" LED, the presence of an NVRAM
chip (for configuration storage), and a user interface, all support this
conclusion. And being SCSI<->SCSI, there's really not much else it
could be.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
9:37 a.m.
Dave McGuire wrote:
I concur with the other folks who suggested that
this may be a
SCSI<->SCSI RAID controller. The eight LEDs on the front panel that
look like activity indicators, the "FAULT" LED, the presence of an NVRAM
chip (for configuration storage), and a user interface, all support this
conclusion. And being SCSI<->SCSI, there's really not much else it
could be.
Google (filtering out stuff from Sun and Sony) turns up a few hits for CMD
SCSI CD jukebox and tape silo controllers - so rather than disk, it could
be for something like that.. Maybe dumping the firmware (if Ian has
suitable kit) and trawling it for human-readable strings would yield some
useful info?
cheers
Jules
9:35 a.m.
On 3/27/11 12:37 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
I suggest stepping through the menus as a first task.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
I concur with
the other folks who suggested that this may be a
SCSI<->SCSI RAID controller. The eight LEDs on the front panel that
look like activity indicators, the "FAULT" LED, the presence of an
NVRAM chip (for configuration storage), and a user interface, all
support this conclusion. And being SCSI<->SCSI, there's really not
much else it could be.
Google (filtering out stuff from Sun and Sony) turns up a few hits for
CMD SCSI CD jukebox and tape silo controllers - so rather than disk, it
could be for something like that.. Maybe dumping the firmware (if Ian
has suitable kit) and trawling it for human-readable strings would yield
some useful info?
5017
days inactive
5020
days old
10 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
davebarnes＠roadrunner.com -
geoffr＠zipcon.net -
ian_primus＠yahoo.com -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
jkunz＠unixag-kl.fh-kl.de -
jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
rtellason＠verizon.net