Sender: alpha-osf-managers-relay_at_sws1.ctd.ornl.gov
Followup-To: poster
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Date: Fri, 7 Mar 1997 11:08:20 -0800
From: chu_at_musp0.jpl.nasa.gov (Eugene Chu)
I asked about the types of SCSI controllers available for an
Alphstation 250 4/266, specifically the KZPSC controller.
Thanks to the following for their responses:
Allan Rollow, alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com
Thomas Leitner, tom_at_finwds01.tu-graz.ac.at
Tom Blinn, tpb_at_ZK3.DEC.COM
barnwell_at_jbsvax.eksystems.com
Mark Zander, mark_zander_at_spcc.com
Richard Sharpe, admin_at_ns.aus.com
Tom Webster, webster_at_ssdpdc.mdc.com
The responses indicate that the KZPSC 3 channel controller can work
in a workstation environment, even though it was only qualified on
the big servers. It should be able to work in the Just a Bunch of
Disks (JBoD) mode with no striping for RAID, or in RAID 0, 1, 0+1
(what's that?), and 5 mode. However, it may require a second PCI
slot for all the SCSI connectors. Since I have a graphics card in
one of the 2 PCI slots in my system, I won't be able to use the 3
channel version.
Other alternatives were suggested, including KZPSA, a FWD controller,
KZPDA, a FWSE controller (maybe those two are reversed?), and the
KZPAA, which has little intellegence of its own and would put a
significant load on the CPU and memory for lots of small transfers.
Another alternative is to use a KZPSA with an HSZ40 external
controller with 6 narrow SCSI channels. This will provide gobs of
SCSI connectivity, including disks and tapes, with just a single PCI
interface.
A non-DEC controller, the Adaptec 2940, was also suggested as a
lower cost alternative. Some REALLY low cost alternatives are the
generic PCI SCSI adaptors with the BIOS removed. These might again
be low intellegence controllers that might need lots of direction
from the CPU to run.
These choices will give me lots to think about.
eugene
I don't think that the Adaptec 2940 is supported under Digital UNIX.
The DEC controllers are expensive and obsolete (no ultra wide). As
far as I can tell, the best SCSI controllers for Digital UNIX are from
IntraServer. They offer both single and dual channel ultra wide scsi
controllers at an excellent price. I just ordered them for my new
AlphaStation 500/500s. Check out www.intraserver.com.
Eric
Received on Sun Mar 09 1997 - 01:06:38 NZDT