6 May
2006
6 May
'06
7:10 p.m.
I went to see this guy today who had a bunch of stuff he wanted to get rid of,
and I was looking for scrap. It occurs to me that some of this may perhaps
be of some interest...
- An assembly that's marked "Mod. A33", it appears to contain a floppy
drive
(the button is marked 1.44) and there's a square pushbutton and a smaller
recessed button (reset?), a liquid crystal display, and a keyswitch. I
have two of these.
- A tape drive (?) marked "Exabyte Corporation" and "Model HH CTS", I
probabl
have more than one of these. Pushing open the tape door shows a head in
there that bears a slight resemblance to a video head, but smaller. It's
got some kind of rails on it and a (single) connector on the back that I
dno't recognize, probably for some IBM system. The drive appears to have
standard 4-pin power and pin header (50-pin?) going to this.
- Printers. I have an Oki 184 that was never removed from the wrapping in the
box. Also available to me are going to be some other models, 3?? Oki as
well. If you need to print multipart forms these are real workhorses.
- Terminals. Since there's been a bunch of talk in here about terminals
lately. these I didn't snag today (the car was filled up! :-) but there will
be some quantity of Wyse 325 Color and 60 Monochrome terminals, all working
I'm told. If there is interest let me know, otherwise these are all going
to be scrapped for parts.
- "Cooling unit", this is marked "model 052C" and all I can see are a
couple
of fans and a connector on the other end, appears to be for some kind of IBM
racks, I have two of these.
- Power supplies, "Lucent Technology C5892B", I have two of these as well.
- "Webramp 700", apparently complete with all sorts of stuff in the box.
- A docking station and external floppy drive, marked "Toshiba 430", which
also has a pile of original software on floppies in the box which appears to
include w95.
- A box that was "sealed by IBM" until I opened it and apparently containing a
"7137 Disk Array Subsystem", complete and certified and such, with some
paperwork in a loose-leaf binder, I didn't unpack it any further than that.
- Power aupplies and drive assemblies for "IBM 7133 HD Rack Assy" and also the
racks, if there's any interest. I believe there is some large number of
these, but I haven't had the chance to count things up yet.
There's a lot more, and this is going to take multiple more trips for me to
end up with all of this stuff before I'll know what I have. If any of it is
of interest, please let me know offlist and we'll figure something out. If
I don't hear from anybody, I'm just going to get what I can that's usable
parts out if it and the rest is history.
--
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
6 May
6 May
8:21 p.m.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 07:10 pm, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
- Power aupplies and drive assemblies for "IBM
7133 HD Rack Assy" and also
the racks, if there's any interest. I believe there is some large number
of these, but I haven't had the chance to count things up yet.
Followup on those -- I took one and opened up the enclosure. There is a hard
drive in there, but it has a connector that bears no resemblance to anything
that I've ever seen before. The 96-pin (?) connector that the unit plugs
into the rack with is also unfamiliar to me. Unless there's some way I can
interface this to some more standard hardware here I suspect that they're
going to be of very little use to me, and yield very little in the way of
useful hardware. :-(
Anybody know what these things are?
--
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
8:59 p.m.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 20:21, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
On Saturday 06 May 2006 07:10 pm, Roy J. Tellason
wrote:
It's an IBM SSA disk enclosure - SSA was IBM's pre-fiberchannel
"fiberchannel." Potentially useful to people with RS/6000s, AS/400s, or some
S/390 gear that uses them.
These shouldn't be confused with Sun's SSA, which was also a pre-fiberchannel
fiber attached storage, but which was otherwise completely different...
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
- Power aupplies and drive assemblies for
"IBM 7133 HD Rack Assy" and
also the racks, if there's any interest. I believe there is some large
number of these, but I haven't had the chance to count things up yet.
Followup on those -- I took one and opened up the enclosure. There is a
hard drive in there, but it has a connector that bears no resemblance to
anything that I've ever seen before. The 96-pin (?) connector that the
unit plugs into the rack with is also unfamiliar to me. Unless there's
some way I can interface this to some more standard hardware here I suspect
that they're going to be of very little use to me, and yield very little
in the way of useful hardware. :-(
Anybody know what these things are?
10:02 p.m.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 08:59 pm, Patrick Finnegan wrote:
On Saturday 06 May 2006 20:21, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
Well, I'm glad that somebody knows what they are, and if anybody wants some
of this stuff feel free to contact me offlist...
On Saturday 06 May 2006 07:10 pm, Roy J. Tellason
wrote:
It's an IBM SSA disk enclosure - SSA was IBM's pre-fiberchannel
"fiberchannel." Potentially useful to people with RS/6000s, AS/400s, or
some S/390 gear that uses them. - Power aupplies and drive assemblies for
"IBM 7133 HD Rack Assy" and
also the racks, if there's any interest. I believe there is some
large number of these, but I haven't had the chance to count things up
yet.
Followup on those -- I took one and opened up the enclosure. There is a
hard drive in there, but it has a connector that bears no resemblance to
anything that I've ever seen before. The 96-pin (?) connector that the
unit plugs into the rack with is also unfamiliar to me. Unless there's
some way I can interface this to some more standard hardware here I
suspect that they're going to be of very little use to me, and yield
very little in the way of useful hardware. :-(
Anybody know what these things are? These shouldn't be confused with Sun's SSA,
which was also a
pre-fiberchannel fiber attached storage, but which was otherwise completely
different...
Pat
--
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
8:51 p.m.
On 5/6/2006 at 7:10 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
- An assembly that's marked "Mod. A33",
it appears to contain a floppy
drive
(the button is marked 1.44) and there's a square pushbutton and a smaller
recessed button (reset?), a liquid crystal display, and a keyswitch. I
have two of these.
Something rings a bell abou this one, but I can't think of what it might
be. Anything inside of the box?
- A tape drive (?) marked "Exabyte
Corporation" and "Model HH CTS", I
probabl have more than one of these. Pushing open the tape door shows a
head in
there that bears a slight resemblance to a video head,
but smaller.
Most likely an 8 mm drive (since this is what Exabyte specialized in). The
connection's SCSI and pretty standard. You can use 8 mm videocam carts in
these (in spite of what Exabyte said). Capacity ranged from 2-8 GB,
depending on model.
Cheers,
Chuck
9:44 p.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 5/6/2006 at 7:10 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
I have a 20GB (40GB compressed) Exabyte here. Not sure how
true the "video tape" option is for higher densities... :-(
- An assembly that's marked "Mod.
A33", it appears to contain a floppy
drive
(the button is marked 1.44) and there's a square pushbutton and a smaller
recessed button (reset?), a liquid crystal display, and a keyswitch. I
have two of these.
Something rings a bell abou this one, but I can't think of what it might
be. Anything inside of the box?
- A tape drive (?) marked "Exabyte
Corporation" and "Model HH CTS", I
probabl have more than one of these. Pushing open the tape door shows a
head in
there that bears a slight resemblance to a video
head, but smaller.
Most likely an 8 mm drive (since this is what Exabyte specialized in). The
connection's SCSI and pretty standard. You can use 8 mm videocam carts in
these (in spite of what Exabyte said). Capacity ranged from 2-8 GB,
depending on model.
10:03 p.m.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 09:44 pm, Don Y wrote:
I have a 20GB (40GB compressed) Exabyte here. Not sure how
true the "video tape" option is for higher densities... :-(
I believe that the guy mentioned "20GB" in our conversations. What sort of
tapes would that things use?
--
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
- A tape drive (?) marked "Exabyte
Corporation" and "Model HH CTS", I
probabl have more than one of these. Pushing open the tape door shows a
head in there that bears a slight resemblance to a video head, but
smaller.
Most likely an 8 mm drive (since this is what Exabyte specialized in).
The connection's SCSI and pretty standard. You can use 8 mm videocam
carts in these (in spite of what Exabyte said). Capacity ranged from 2-8
GB, depending on model.
10:27 p.m.
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
On Saturday 06 May 2006 09:44 pm, Don Y wrote:
I have a 20GB (40GB compressed) Exabyte here. Not sure
how
true the "video tape" option is for higher densities... :-(
I believe that the guy mentioned "20GB" in our conversations. What sort of
tapes would that things use?
If it is an Exabyte, they are most likely 8mm (as Chuck> said).
Roughly 1/2" thick (cartridge) by 2" x 3". My tapes claim
"exabyte recognition systems" which I assume is just something
that tells the drive what (ahem) capacity the tape is.
Note other types of drives also support 20G (and MUCH higher)
densities (DLT, SDLT, etc.) but I assume (from your comments)
that these are all exabytes.
- A tape drive (?) marked "Exabyte
Corporation" and "Model HH CTS", I
probabl have more than one of these. Pushing open the tape door shows a
head in there that bears a slight resemblance to a video head, but
smaller.
Most likely an 8 mm drive (since this is what Exabyte specialized in).
The connection's SCSI and pretty standard. You can use 8 mm videocam
carts in these (in spite of what Exabyte said). Capacity ranged from 2-8
GB, depending on model.
11:09 p.m.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 10:27 pm, Don Y wrote:
If it is an Exabyte, they are most likely 8mm (as Chuck> said).
Roughly 1/2" thick (cartridge) by 2" x 3". My tapes claim
"exabyte recognition systems" which I assume is just something
that tells the drive what (ahem) capacity the tape is.
Note other types of drives also support 20G (and MUCH higher)
densities (DLT, SDLT, etc.) but I assume (from your comments)
that these are all exabytes.
These two that I have immediately to hand, yeah. They appear to have the
standar 4-pin power connector and a 50-pin SCSI connector that's tied by way
of some very short cables to a hot-plug (?) setup via a little board on the
back, it appears to be an 80-pin connector. That stuff is mounted to a rail
of sorts that goes around the back and most of both sides.
Looks like those hard drives are supposed to be hot-pluggable too, it's too
bad they aren't standard drives inside of those modules, those I could have
used, these things I can't see any way to use them unless I can figure out
some way to hook up to the rack as a whole.
--
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
I have a 20GB (40GB compressed) Exabyte here. Not
sure how
true the "video tape" option is for higher densities... :-(
I believe that the guy mentioned "20GB" in our conversations. What sort
of tapes would that things use?
11:25 p.m.
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
On Saturday 06 May 2006 10:27 pm, Don Y wrote:
If it is an Exabyte, they are most likely 8mm (as
Chuck> said).
Roughly 1/2" thick (cartridge) by 2" x 3". My tapes claim
"exabyte recognition systems" which I assume is just something
that tells the drive what (ahem) capacity the tape is.
Note other types of drives also support 20G (and MUCH higher)
densities (DLT, SDLT, etc.) but I assume (from your comments)
that these are all exabytes.
These two that I have immediately to hand, yeah. They appear to have the
standar 4-pin power connector and a 50-pin SCSI connector that's tied by way
of some very short cables to a hot-plug (?) setup via a little board on the
back, it appears to be an 80-pin connector. That stuff is mounted to a rail
of sorts that goes around the back and most of both sides.
The board is probably an SCA adapter. This, by itself, doesn't
make the assembly "hot swappable" -- though hard to say without
knowing what your adapter actually does...
I have a 20GB (40GB compressed) Exabyte here. Not
sure how
true the "video tape" option is for higher densities... :-(
I believe
that the guy mentioned "20GB" in our conversations. What sort
of tapes would that things use? Looks like those hard drives are supposed to be
hot-pluggable too, it's too
bad they aren't standard drives inside of those modules, those I could have
used, these things I can't see any way to use them unless I can figure out
some way to hook up to the rack as a whole.
Double check the drive connectors. Make sure they aren't
*80* pins like the adapter on the tape drive. If so,
they are all ScA drives and very commonly used.
11:34 p.m.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 11:25 pm, Don Y wrote:
Oh, these drives are definitely very strange. Made in Singapore by IBM
Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen -- it's in four
separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8 pins wide, but
double-sided, and with spaces in between them. The rest of what's in the
plastic module is 3 LEDs on the "front panel" which are tied to a small board
at that end of the module -- this has what appears to be a bunch of coils on
it and assorted surface-mount parts, and a chip that's not packaged but
under a blob of epoxy. Then at the back end of the module is another small
board that contains a voltage regulator (LM317T), a couple of diodes, and
some capacitors. And one chip with a sticker saying "Part No. 31H8183",
plus the external connector, which is 3 rows of 24 holes each, though it's
obvious looking at the inside of the connector that not all of those holes
have contacts in them. This resembles nothing that I'm familiar with.
And I have a *LOT* of these, two big boxes of them still sitting out in my
car...
--
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
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
I've heard that acronym before in the past day or so, what's it stand for?
On Saturday 06 May 2006 10:27 pm, Don Y wrote:
These two that I have immediately to hand, yeah. They appear to have
the standar 4-pin power connector and a 50-pin SCSI connector that's tied
by way of some very short cables to a hot-plug (?) setup via a little
board on the back, it appears to be an 80-pin connector. That stuff is
mounted to a rail of sorts that goes around the back and most of both
sides.
The board is probably an SCA adapter. This, by itself, doesn't
make the assembly "hot swappable" -- though hard to say without
knowing what your adapter actually does... > I
have a 20GB (40GB compressed) Exabyte here. Not sure how
> true the "video tape" option is for higher densities... :-(
I believe that the guy mentioned "20GB" in our conversations. What
sort of tapes would that things use?
If it is an Exabyte, they are most likely 8mm (as Chuck> said).
Roughly 1/2" thick (cartridge) by 2" x 3". My tapes claim
"exabyte recognition systems" which I assume is just something
that tells the drive what (ahem) capacity the tape is.
Note other types of drives also support 20G (and MUCH higher)
densities (DLT, SDLT, etc.) but I assume (from your comments)
that these are all exabytes. Looks like
those hard drives are supposed to be hot-pluggable too, it's
too bad they aren't standard drives inside of those modules, those I
could have used, these things I can't see any way to use them unless I
can figure out some way to hook up to the rack as a whole.
Double check the drive connectors. Make sure they aren't
*80* pins like the adapter on the tape drive. If so,
they are all ScA drives and very commonly used.
11:58 p.m.
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
Oh, these drives are definitely very strange. Made in Singapore by IBM
Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen -- it's in four
separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8 pins wide, but
double-sided, and with spaces in between them. The rest of what's in the
plastic module is 3 LEDs on the "front panel" which are tied to a small board
at that end of the module -- this has what appears to be a bunch of coils on
it and assorted surface-mount parts, and a chip that's not packaged but
under a blob of epoxy. Then at the back end of the module is another small
board that contains a voltage regulator (LM317T), a couple of diodes, and
some capacitors. And one chip with a sticker saying "Part No. 31H8183",
plus the external connector, which is 3 rows of 24 holes each, though it's
obvious looking at the inside of the connector that not all of those holes
have contacts in them. This resembles nothing that I'm familiar with.
And I have a *LOT* of these, two big boxes of them still sitting out in my
car...
Nothing that gives you a clue as to how big the drives are?
(e.g., if they are 1G, probably not worth the time to sort
it all out...)
On Saturday 06 May 2006 11:25 pm, Don Y wrote:
(roughly) Single Connector Attachment
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
I've heard that acronym before in the past day or so, what's it stand for?
On Saturday 06 May 2006 10:27 pm, Don Y wrote:
The board is probably an SCA adapter. This, by itself, doesn't
make the assembly "hot swappable" -- though hard to say without
knowing what your adapter actually does... >> I have a 20GB (40GB compressed) Exabyte
here. Not sure how
>> true the "video tape" option is for higher densities... :-(
> I believe that the guy mentioned "20GB" in our conversations. What
> sort of tapes would that things use?
If it is an Exabyte, they are most likely 8mm (as Chuck> said).
Roughly 1/2" thick (cartridge) by 2" x 3". My tapes claim
"exabyte recognition systems" which I assume is just something
that tells the drive what (ahem) capacity the tape is.
Note other types of drives also support 20G (and MUCH higher)
densities (DLT, SDLT, etc.) but I assume (from your comments)
that these are all exabytes.
These two that I have immediately to hand, yeah.
They appear to have
the standar 4-pin power connector and a 50-pin SCSI connector that's tied
by way of some very short cables to a hot-plug (?) setup via a little
board on the back, it appears to be an 80-pin connector. That stuff is
mounted to a rail of sorts that goes around the back and most of both
sides. Looks like those hard drives are supposed to be
hot-pluggable too, it's
too bad they aren't standard drives inside of those modules, those I
could have used, these things I can't see any way to use them unless I
can figure out some way to hook up to the rack as a whole.
Double check the drive
connectors. Make sure they aren't
*80* pins like the adapter on the tape drive. If so,
they are all ScA drives and very commonly used.
7 May
7 May
12:13 a.m.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 11:58 pm, Don Y wrote:
(roughly) Single Connector Attachment
Ah. Another thing that came up here in that box of stuff was a couple of IBM
"Quad Speed" CDROM drives with the same 80-pin connectors on the back, also
adaptable to removing some bits and using the standard 4-pin power and 50-pin
SCSI cable...
Oh, these drives are definitely very strange. Made in Singapore by IBM
Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen -- it's in four
separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8 pins wide, but
double-sided, and with spaces in between them. The rest of what's in
the plastic module is 3 LEDs on the "front panel" which are tied to a
small board at that end of the module -- this has what appears to be a
bunch of coils on it and assorted surface-mount parts, and a chip that's
not packaged but under a blob of epoxy. Then at the back end of the
module is another small board that contains a voltage regulator (LM317T),
a couple of diodes, and some capacitors. And one chip with a sticker
saying "Part No. 31H8183", plus the external connector, which is 3 rows
of 24 holes each, though it's obvious looking at the inside of the
connector that not all of those holes have contacts in them. This
resembles nothing that I'm familiar with.
And I have a *LOT* of these, two big boxes of them still sitting out in
my car...
Nothing that gives you a clue as to how big the drives are? (e.g., if they
are 1G, probably not worth the time to sort it all out...)
He mentioned a number that was decidedly bigger than that (but still under
10GB) and I can't recall what it is offhand. Somebody else wrote me offlist
and asked for an FRU number which I passed along, perhaps that will give a
clue. I just looked over the emails I'd exchanged with the guy I got the
stuff from and he doesn't say in there, unfortunately.
--
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
The board is probably an SCA adapter. This, by
itself, doesn't
make the assembly "hot swappable" -- though hard to say without
knowing what your adapter actually does...
I've heard that acronym before in the past day or so, what's it stand
for? Looks like
those hard drives are supposed to be hot-pluggable too,
it's too bad they aren't standard drives inside of those modules,
those I could have used, these things I can't see any way to use them
unless I can figure out some way to hook up to the rack as a whole.
Double check the drive connectors. Make sure they aren't
*80* pins like the adapter on the tape drive. If so,
they are all ScA drives and very commonly used.
1:33 p.m.
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
Nothing that gives you a clue as to how big the drives are? (e.g., if
they
are 1G, probably not worth the time to sort it all out...)
He mentioned a number that was decidedly bigger than that (but still under
10GB) and I can't recall what it is offhand. Somebody else wrote me offlist
and asked for an FRU number which I passed along, perhaps that will give a
clue. I just looked over the emails I'd exchanged with the guy I got the
stuff from and he doesn't say in there, unfortunately.
FRU number would have made much of this conversation moot! :>
(not to be confused with Smoot!)
On Saturday 06 May 2006 11:58 pm, Don Y wrote:
(roughly) Single Connector Attachment
Ah. Another thing that came up here in that box of stuff was a couple of IBM
"Quad Speed" CDROM drives with the same 80-pin connectors on the back, also
adaptable to removing some bits and using the standard 4-pin power and 50-pin
SCSI cable...
The SCA handles power, signals AND SCSI ID selection (i.e. the
slot into which you plug the drive sets the SCSI ID) -- though
in some cases, with adapters, you stll set the ID on the drive
itself.
Most peripherals (CD, etc.) are only 8b so don't benefit from
the capabilities of the SCA (aside from being a single connection!)
The board is probably an SCA adapter. This, by
itself, doesn't
make the assembly "hot swappable" -- though hard to say without
knowing what your adapter actually does...
I've heard that acronym before in
the past day or so, what's it stand
for? > Looks like
those hard drives are supposed to be hot-pluggable too,
> it's too bad they aren't standard drives inside of those modules,
> those I could have used, these things I can't see any way to use them
> unless I can figure out some way to hook up to the rack as a whole.
Double check the drive connectors. Make sure they aren't
*80* pins like the adapter on the tape drive. If so,
they are all ScA drives and very commonly used.
Oh, these drives are definitely
very strange. Made in Singapore by IBM
Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen -- it's in four
separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8 pins wide, but
double-sided, and with spaces in between them. The rest of what's in
the plastic module is 3 LEDs on the "front panel" which are tied to a
small board at that end of the module -- this has what appears to be a
bunch of coils on it and assorted surface-mount parts, and a chip that's
not packaged but under a blob of epoxy. Then at the back end of the
module is another small board that contains a voltage regulator (LM317T),
a couple of diodes, and some capacitors. And one chip with a sticker
saying "Part No. 31H8183", plus the external connector, which is 3 rows
of 24 holes each, though it's obvious looking at the inside of the
connector that not all of those holes have contacts in them. This
resembles nothing that I'm familiar with.
And I have a *LOT* of these, two big boxes of them still sitting out in
my car...
3 p.m.
On 5/6/2006 at 11:34 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
Oh, these drives are definitely very strange. Made in
Singapore by IBM
Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen -- it's in four
separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8 pins wide, but
double-sided, and with spaces in between them.
I wonder if this might be some sort of SAS connector. I guess we'll find
out eventually.
Cheers,
Chuck
4:21 p.m.
On Sunday 07 May 2006 03:00 pm, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 5/6/2006 at 11:34 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
That's the internal connection to the drive itself, rather than the usual pin
header that I was looking for, which is why my thoughts of opening these up
and being able to use the drives turns out to be a dead end...
--
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
Oh, these drives are definitely very strange.
Made in Singapore by IBM
Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen -- it's in four
separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8 pins wide, but
double-sided, and with spaces in between them.
I wonder if this might be some sort of SAS connector. I guess we'll find
out eventually.
4:38 p.m.
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
On Sunday 07 May 2006 03:00 pm, Chuck Guzis wrote:
If you have the "thing into which they fit", can't you use
*that*, as an assembly, and talk TO it?
On 5/6/2006 at 11:34 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
That's the internal connection to the drive itself, rather than the usual pin
header that I was looking for, which is why my thoughts of opening these up
and being able to use the drives turns out to be a dead end... Oh, these drives are definitely very strange.
Made in Singapore by IBM
Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen -- it's in four
separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8 pins wide, but
double-sided, and with spaces in between them.
I wonder if this might be some
sort of SAS connector. I guess we'll find
out eventually.
5:41 p.m.
On Sunday 07 May 2006 04:38 pm, Don Y wrote:
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
That would be the bit that the guy described as "the rack", and no, I
didn't
get it this trip. The modules in question have a connector on the back of
them that is apparently 3 rows of 24 (?) pins each, though it appears that
not all of those holes have contacts in them when you look at the part of the
connector that's inside the box. I also have a couple of power supplies that
go with "the rack". Unfortunately that's probably designed for some IBM big
iron setup and I'm not at all confident about being able to talk to it,
though if you or anyone else has any suggestions I'm interested in hearing
them...
--
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
On Sunday 07 May 2006 03:00 pm, Chuck Guzis
wrote:
If you have the "thing into which they fit", can't you use
*that*, as an assembly, and talk TO it? On 5/6/2006 at 11:34 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
That's the internal connection to the drive itself, rather than the
usual pin header that I was looking for, which is why my thoughts of
opening these up and being able to use the drives turns out to be a dead
end... Oh, these drives are definitely very strange.
Made in Singapore by
IBM Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen -- it's in
four separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8 pins wide,
but double-sided, and with spaces in between them.
I wonder if this might be some sort of SAS connector. I guess we'll
find out eventually.
7:03 p.m.
On Sunday 07 May 2006 15:00, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 5/6/2006 at 11:34 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
As I said in the thread yesterday, it's an IBM SSA disk connector. It's
IBM's pre-fiberchannel "fiberchannel" - a serial link to connect a
string of disks to a controller. They made MCA and PCI adapters for
RS/6000s, as well as some AS/400 adapters (I think), and it was also
used for storage in the Multiprise 2003 ("small" s/390 system;
processor and DASD in a standard IBM S/390 rack).
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
Oh, these drives are definitely very strange.
Made in Singapore by
IBM Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen --
it's in four separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8
pins wide, but double-sided, and with spaces in between them.
I wonder if this might be some sort of SAS connector. I guess we'll
find out eventually. 
7:12 p.m.
As I said in the thread yesterday, it's an IBM SSA
disk connector. It's
IBM's pre-fiberchannel "fiberchannel" - a serial link to connect a
string of disks to a controller. They made MCA and PCI adapters for
RS/6000s,
Could this possibly been a drive in an IBM
RAID-via-HIPPI system back in 1994?
The IBM started with a Maxim Strategy
array, then moved to it's own for the PVS
(Power Visualization System) product.
John A.
7:18 p.m.
On Sunday 07 May 2006 07:03 pm, Patrick Finnegan wrote:
On Sunday 07 May 2006 15:00, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Actually I think you might have said something to that effect in an email to
me but I don't think you said anything in here.
A PCI card, huh? Hmm... :-)
There might be some hope for these things after all.
--
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
On 5/6/2006 at 11:34 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
As I said in the thread yesterday, it's an IBM SSA disk connector. It's
IBM's pre-fiberchannel "fiberchannel" - a serial link to connect a
string of disks to a controller. They made MCA and PCI adapters for
RS/6000s, as well as some AS/400 adapters (I think), and it was also
used for storage in the Multiprise 2003 ("small" s/390 system;
processor and DASD in a standard IBM S/390 rack). Oh, these drives are definitely very strange.
Made in Singapore by
IBM Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen --
it's in four separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8
pins wide, but double-sided, and with spaces in between them.
I wonder if this might be some sort of SAS connector. I guess we'll
find out eventually.
9:45 p.m.
On Sunday 07 May 2006 20:25, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 5/7/2006 at 7:18 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
Did this message not make it to the list?
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Subject: Re: stuff!
Date: Saturday 06 May 2006 20:59
From: Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
On Saturday 06 May 2006 20:21, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
Actually I think you might have said something to
that effect in an
email to me but I don't think you said anything in here.
The list never got the email. Ah, well, at least I had the serial
part right. On Saturday 06 May 2006 07:10 pm, Roy J. Tellason
wrote:
It's an IBM SSA disk enclosure - SSA was IBM's pre-fiberchannel
"fiberchannel." Potentially useful to people with RS/6000s, AS/400s,
or some S/390 gear that uses them.
These shouldn't be confused with Sun's SSA, which was also a
pre-fiberchannel fiber attached storage, but which was otherwise
completely different...
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
-------------------------------------------------------
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
- Power aupplies and drive assemblies for
"IBM 7133 HD Rack Assy"
and also the racks, if there's any interest. I believe there is
some large number of these, but I haven't had the chance to count
things up yet.
Followup on those -- I took one and opened up the enclosure. There
is a hard drive in there, but it has a connector that bears no
resemblance to anything that I've ever seen before. The 96-pin (?)
connector that the unit plugs into the rack with is also unfamiliar
to me. Unless there's some way I can interface this to some more
standard hardware here I suspect that they're going to be of very
little use to me, and yield very little in the way of useful
hardware. :-(
Anybody know what these things are?
7 May
7 May
9:43 p.m.
On Sunday 07 May 2006 19:18, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
On Sunday 07 May 2006 07:03 pm, Patrick Finnegan
wrote:
I've got 4 of the cards, and probably could be persuaded to get rid of a
couple of them, as I have no SSA disks (and I'm not sure I really want
any either).
BTW, you'll probably need to be running AIX or maybe OS/400 in order to
make use of the card - I doubt there's drivers for anything else.
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
On Sunday 07 May 2006 15:00, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Actually I think you might have said something to that effect in an
email to me but I don't think you said anything in here.
A PCI card, huh? Hmm... :-)
There might be some hope for these things after all. On 5/6/2006 at 11:34 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
As I said in the thread yesterday, it's an IBM SSA disk connector.
It's IBM's pre-fiberchannel "fiberchannel" - a serial link to
connect a string of disks to a controller. They made MCA and PCI
adapters for RS/6000s, as well as some AS/400 adapters (I think),
and it was also used for storage in the Multiprise 2003 ("small"
s/390 system; processor and DASD in a standard IBM S/390 rack). Oh, these drives are definitely very strange.
Made in
Singapore by IBM Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've
ever seen -- it's in four separate little sections, which are
3, 3, 4, and 8 pins wide, but double-sided, and with spaces
in between them.
I wonder if this might be some sort of SAS connector. I guess
we'll find out eventually. 
11:15 p.m.
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
I've got 4 of the cards, and probably could be
persuaded to get rid of a
couple of them, as I have no SSA disks (and I'm not sure I really want
any either).
BTW, you'll probably need to be running AIX or maybe OS/400 in order to
make use of the card - I doubt there's drivers for anything else.
There are drivers for NT4 at least, and maybe W2k for some of the PCI
SSA adapters. A quick Googling didn't come up with the list, but at
least some of them worked in both AIX and Windows.
Doc
11:27 p.m.
On Sunday 07 May 2006 23:15, Doc Shipley wrote:
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
It'd be nice if there were Linux drivers, as IBM seems to be embracing
Linux now-a-days (though only for *new* stuff, not older stuff.. sigh).
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
I've got 4 of the cards, and probably could
be persuaded to get rid
of a couple of them, as I have no SSA disks (and I'm not sure I
really want any either).
BTW, you'll probably need to be running AIX or maybe OS/400 in
order to make use of the card - I doubt there's drivers for
anything else.
There are drivers for NT4 at least, and maybe W2k for some of the
PCI SSA adapters. A quick Googling didn't come up with the list, but
at least some of them worked in both AIX and Windows.
11:50 p.m.
On Sunday 07 May 2006 11:27 pm, Patrick Finnegan wrote:
On Sunday 07 May 2006 23:15, Doc Shipley wrote:
Yeah, that would be nice...
I suppose at worst there's that ndiswrapper thingy, if my understanding of it
is correct.
--
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
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
It'd be nice if there were Linux drivers, as IBM seems to be embracing
Linux now-a-days (though only for *new* stuff, not older stuff.. sigh). I've got 4 of the cards, and probably could
be persuaded to get rid
of a couple of them, as I have no SSA disks (and I'm not sure I
really want any either).
BTW, you'll probably need to be running AIX or maybe OS/400 in
order to make use of the card - I doubt there's drivers for
anything else.
There are drivers for NT4 at least, and maybe W2k for some of the
PCI SSA adapters. A quick Googling didn't come up with the list, but
at least some of them worked in both AIX and Windows.
11:48 p.m.
On Sunday 07 May 2006 09:43 pm, Patrick Finnegan wrote:
I believe that the system these were in ran AIX, but no drivers? That would
be a real PITA, if it turned out that way...
--
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
A PCI card,
huh? Hmm... :-)
There might be some hope for these things after all.
I've got 4 of the cards, and probably could be persuaded to get rid of a
couple of them, as I have no SSA disks (and I'm not sure I really want
any either).
BTW, you'll probably need to be running AIX or maybe OS/400 in order to
make use of the card - I doubt there's drivers for anything else.
9:39 p.m.
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
On Sunday 07 May 2006 15:00, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Why so many *pins* (conductors)? I think the OP indicated
3 rows of 24 pins (?) Unless there are 20 for each *supply*,
that sounds like an awful lot for a serial device...
On 5/6/2006 at 11:34 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
As I said in the thread yesterday, it's an IBM SSA disk connector. It's
IBM's pre-fiberchannel "fiberchannel" - a serial link to connect a
string of disks to a controller. They made MCA and PCI adapters for
RS/6000s, as well as some AS/400 adapters (I think), and it was also
used for storage in the Multiprise 2003 ("small" s/390 system;
processor and DASD in a standard IBM S/390 rack). Oh, these drives are definitely very strange.
Made in Singapore by
IBM Singapore, the connector is like nothing I've ever seen --
it's in four separate little sections, which are 3, 3, 4, and 8
pins wide, but double-sided, and with spaces in between them.
I wonder if this
might be some sort of SAS connector. I guess we'll
find out eventually.
6 May
6 May
11:03 p.m.
On 5/6/2006 at 10:03 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
I believe that the guy mentioned "20GB" in
our conversations. What sort
of
tapes would that things use?
Your basic 112m 8mm "D8" data storage tape. Sony QG-112M, Imation D8-112,
any number of brands. Or try an 8mm videocam tape. My 2-8 GB figure was
based on when Exabyte first came out with these things (I've got one
complete with an LCD display that tells how much tape is remaining!).
Later revisions bumped the capacity. The commercial-grade Exabyte stuff
wasn't bad, but the cost-reduced mass-market retail stuff was pure garbage.
Better than DAT, not as good as DLT, IMOHO.
Cheers,
Chuck
11:06 p.m.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 11:03 pm, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 5/6/2006 at 10:03 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
I don't get the impression that this is at all "cost-reduced mass market
stuff", here. This is all out of some big IBM system of some sort...
--
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
I believe that the guy mentioned "20GB"
in our conversations. What sort
of
tapes would that things use?
Your basic 112m 8mm "D8" data storage tape. Sony QG-112M, Imation D8-112,
any number of brands. Or try an 8mm videocam tape. My 2-8 GB figure was
based on when Exabyte first came out with these things (I've got one
complete with an LCD display that tells how much tape is remaining!).
Later revisions bumped the capacity. The commercial-grade Exabyte stuff
wasn't bad, but the cost-reduced mass-market retail stuff was pure garbage.
Better than DAT, not as good as DLT, IMOHO.
10:01 p.m.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 08:51 pm, Chuck Guzis wrote:
I know that he said something about 20G (?) on some of the drives that he was
talking about there. Even 2-8G wouldn't be too shabby, way better than any
other tapes I have here and beats the heck out of cdrom.
Oh, and one other thing I forgot to mention in the first post, he also
mentioned "DSUs, routers, and Frame Relay stuff for point-to-point
connections" if any of that is of interest to any of you guys...
All of this stuff is working, supposedly pulled from service or a part of a
backup for a whole computer setup that's now been taken out of service. He
said something about 8 years ago they spent over $200,000 on this stuff and
now it's worth next to nothing.
--
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
On 5/6/2006 at 7:10 PM Roy J. Tellason wrote:
I haven't opened it up yet. (Popping cover...) Ah, that's why they had that
sticker about the lithium battery, there's a board with what appears to be
roughly a AA-sized 3V lithium battery in a holder in there, one squarish
chip in a socket with "5.2" on a sticker on it, and a bunch of other
surface-mount parts. There's a ribbon cable going off that board to the
floppy, both to the standard pin connector _and_ to the power connector,
and another one that goes to stuff on that front panel (I can't see where
exactly because the floppy drive is in the way). The box is roughly L-shaped
with the short side of the L being the "front panel" and the part that
extends most to the rear being less tall. The extreme rear has some odd
multipin connector showing that's attached to the little board, looks like
34 holes by 3 rows (unless I mis-counted there).
- An assembly that's marked "Mod.
A33", it appears to contain a floppy
drive (the button is marked 1.44) and there's a square pushbutton and a
smaller recessed button (reset?), a liquid crystal display, and a
keyswitch. I have two of these.
Something rings a bell abou this one, but I can't think of what it might
be. Anything inside of the box? - A tape drive
(?) marked "Exabyte Corporation" and "Model HH CTS", I
probabl have more than one of these. Pushing open the tape door shows a
head in there that bears a slight resemblance to a video head, but
smaller.
Most likely an 8 mm drive (since this is what Exabyte specialized in). The
connection's SCSI and pretty standard. You can use 8 mm videocam carts in
these (in spite of what Exabyte said). Capacity ranged from 2-8 GB,
depending on model.
6650
days inactive
6652
days old
32 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
allain＠panix.com -
cclist＠sydex.com -
dgy＠DakotaCom.Net -
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
rtellason＠blazenet.net