On 8/29/19 9:17 PM, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 4:53 PM Alan Perry via
cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
My Sun 3/260 came with a pair of 8-inch SMD disks in a separate cabinet.
1. Anyone have a pointer to docs that describe cabling and configuring
SMD disks? My Google-fu has failed here.
2. The system came with no cables (external cables between cabinets).
Are these standard cables or will they be Sun-specific?
3. The system "ran when parked" about a dozen years ago, but it was left
in an open barn after that. How likely is it that the disks will work
and be readable? One is a Fujitsu M2333; don't recall what they other
one is.
alan
It has been over 5 years now since I had a Sun 4/280. I gave that away
to someone else on the list.
That system had an Xylogics 7053 SMD controller with a couple of
Hitachi 900MB DK815-10 SMD-E ~8-inch drives. I forget the details now.
From a quick look online the Xylogics 7053 SMD controller has a CMD
port, and a DATA 0,1 and a DATA 2,3 port. If I remember right the CMD
port was cabled to the CMD in port of the first drive, then the CMD
out port of the first drive was cabled to the CMD in port of the
second drive, then the CMD out port of the second drive was
terminated. The DATA 0,1 port must have had a Y-cable that was split
to the DATA ports of each drive.
On the controller side, there are two command connectors, one wider than
the other, as well as two data connectors. On the disk cabinet side,
there is a connector marked 'data 0', connected to one HDD, another
marked 'data 1', connected to the other HDD, and two pairs of command
connectors, one marked 'in' and the other 'out'. I haven't yet
followed
the command cabling to see what the connectors connect to.
There were other Xylogics SMD controllers as well. Which controller do
you have in your system?
Xylogics 451.
The diagram on this page it shows that the 60-pin SMD Command connector of
the Xylogics 461 is split into two connectors on the bulkhead panel:
My guess is that it was easier in some way to have two smaller connectors
and cables than a single larger connector and cable. I can't remember now
if the Xylogics 7053 did the same thing with split Command cables.
I assume that in the disk cabinet the two Command In connectors join back
into a standard 60-pin SMD Control connection to the first disk, which is
then chained to the second disk, which is the chained and split again to
the two Command Out connectors.