Hi,
I'm seeking advice for my current plans to upgrade the SCSI busses
of our Alpha PC164 running Digital Unix 4.0b. Currently I got
two NCR 810 cards. One bus currently contains the system disk
(an old ST51080N and an HP DAT streamer). The second bus contains
two user disks (CONNER CTP4207, SEAGATE ST32550N), a second HP
DAT Streamer and a CD-ROM drive.
My main intention for the upgrade is to replace the old and slow
ST51080 system disk by a fast Barracuda 9LP 4GB ultra/wide disk.
So I think I'll just replace one of my NCR 810 controllers with
an IntraServer ITI-3140 or ITI-3280.
BTW: All devices are in external cases for easy replacement in
cases of problems.
Now for my questions (and sorry if they are a bit ignorant but
this is my first experience with ultra/wide SCSI - I only got
plain narrow SCSI now):
1.) When I buy a ITI-3280 (the dual ported version) can I just
connect my old narrow SCSI devices to the second wide port
provided that I use a suitable adapter cable?
2.) Is it better to keep wide-SCSI devices on one bus and
narrow devices on a separate bus or does'nt it hurt to mix
devices on a bus?
3.) With some Digital hardware (I think it was the old DEC
station 5000/33) I got a cable labelled: BC56H-03 which
I've never needed and which looks like a wide (68pin high-
density) to narrow SCSI (50pin centronics) adapter cable.
The cable catalog on:
http://www2.digital.co.uk/info_uk/Tech/cables.htm#BC56h
says:
BC56H SCSI Adapter Cable
Description Single-ended SCSI cable.
Connectors One 68-way, high-density, Honda, female, straight connector
with cut-out locating
keys; one 50-way low-density, Centronics style, straight connector.
Typical Usage To connect the first SCSI device to an InfoServer 150.
Ordering Information: E0-BC56H-03, -06, -09 (feet)
(17-02008-01, -02, -04).
The BC56H-03 and the BC19J-1E are generally shipped with non-embedded
SCSI options.
Question: So what is this? Is it what I've expected: A wide to
narrow scsi adapter cable which I could use to connect my narrow
devices to the IntraServer controller?
4.) If I go for the dual-ported Intraserver controller, I'll have a
maximum of 3 SCSI busses available. Doesn't that conflict with the
internal IDE busses of the PC164 which currently show up as PKC0
and PKD0 under the SRM console? Or will the IDE busses show up as
PKD0 and PKE0 then without any problems?
5.) If mixing of devices (narrow/wide) on one bus can be done without
problems, I could just buy a single port IntraServer and connect
the disks (wide and narrow) to it and use one NCR810 for the slow
devices (tapes + CD-ROM). Anything wrong with that?
Thanks for any thoughts and hints -- Tom
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Received on Mon Oct 13 1997 - 17:36:57 NZDT