SCSI Questions (Was: "Re: Purchased a Microvax 3800")

[devin davison]

Connecting a scsi dlt or dat drive is something i had not considered. I
thought i would have had to buy and use DEC branded tape drives.

I already have a scsi dat and DLT drive in use on my SGI octane.  I could
probally write the image with the octane and then move the drive over to
the microvax to install.

Hopefully the DLT drive will be supported. the dat drive i have seems
finicky at it's best.



On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 12:44 PM, Mark G. Thomas <Mark at misty.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 02:25:25PM -0500, Christian Gauger-Cosgrove wrote:
> > On 6 December 2015 at 13:24, Mark G. Thomas <Mark at misty.com> wrote:
> > > As much as I love old CPUs, I've lost my patience with hard disk
> drives.
> > > I've been using AztecMonster (search ebay) CF-SCSI adapters, with
> several-GB
> > > CF cards instead of spinning disks. The KA660 and several PDP-11/83s
> > > here run reliably from CF storage. I see now there are SCSI2SD cards
> for
> > > half the price of the AztecMonster CF adapters I've been using. These
> > > might be an alternative, if they play okay with whatever q-bus SCSI
> > > controller you find. Installing from SCSI CDROM and using flash
> > > storage is definitely the way to go if you can get the parts.
> >
> > That's great news to hear that the AztecMonster works on QBUS PDP-11s.
> > I now know exactly what my future plans are...
>
> I had mixed results with some QBUS SCSI adapters. Some played well
> with the AztecMonster and some did not. Oddly, I think my Emulex UC07
> was one that did not, but the CQDs and maybe one other model work fine.
>
> > But I have a "random" question for those here. I know some of the QBUS
> > (and UNIBUS) SCSI controllers can act both as an MSCP and TMSCP
> > controller. (CMD CQD-220A/TM for one example.) And I know that several
> > of the PDP-11 operating systems install from tape, and can install
> > from TMSCP tape (hello RSTS/E). What I'd like to know is: Is there
> > anything out there that can emulate a SCSI tape device on a CF card/SD
> > card/USB stick/what-have-you?
>
> So far, I've been using a DLT8000 when I've needed a sequential tape
> device,
> such as for the BSD2.11 install. It's been convenient to write the tape on
> a Linux or Sun box, then plug it into the PDP11. All my older SCSI tape
> drives (Exabyte and DAT) have developed problems, but this DLT8000 drive
> works great.
>
> Mark
>
> --
> Mark G. Thomas (Mark at Misty.com), KC3DRE
>