Does anyone know, from actual experience, whether this card can support the
XEBEC "Sider" drive?
I'm persuaded that the XEBEC Sider, which has an integrated controller right on
the drive, not a bridge in the box with an MFM or RLL drive, as many such drives
have, is a SASI device, rather than a SCSI. If that's the case, the operating
mode must be differently tailored than for standard SCSI. I'm persuaded,
however, that the NCR5380 that's on this card is capable of such things, since
that same chip was used in the AMPRO Little Boards that supported SCSI as well
as SASI devices.
So, does anyone know, from burning his fingers, or the like?
thanx,
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul R. Santa-Maria" <paul_at_orchard.wccnet.org>
To: <r_beaudry_at_hotmail.com>
Cc: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 12:27 PM
Subject: Apple II SCSI card
> Rich Beaudry:
>
> You have an Apple II Rev C SCSI card, not the High Speed card.
>
> Below is a comp.sys.apple2 post with more details about the card,
> including some limitations.
>
> I have one in my IIgs. I also have the original manual and software, but
> the Chinook SCSI Utilities (CSU) software is better (see below). I can
> provide you with copies of this stuff. I can point you to online sources
> of disk images if you can handle them.
>
> For others with Rev A or Rev B versions, I can make Rev C EPROMs.
>
> Paul R. Santa-Maria
> Monroe, Michigan USA
>
>
>
> From: David Empson (dempson_at_actrix.gen.nz)
> Subject: Re: Apple II SCSI Card rev C - Latest Revision?
> Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
> Date: 1998/09/11
>
> Brian <brwiser_at_xmission.com> wrote:
>
> > I just acquired an 1996 Apple II SCSI Card revision C, for my ROM 1
> > IIgs.
>
> I think you'll find that date was 1986, not 96. :-)
>
> > Is "C" the last revision of this card?
>
> There is only one version of the physical card. "Revision C" refers to
> the firmware version. The ROM should be labelled "341-0437-A" if it is
> revision C.
>
> Revision C is the last release of the firwmare for this card.
>
> > Are there any problems I should be aware of?
>
> Many. Where should I start?
>
> 1. The card is not terminated.
>
> If you are connecting more than one device, you must place a
> pass-through terminator between the card and the first device (or
> internal termination in the first device), as well as after the last
> device on the chain.
>
> If you are connecting a single device, it should have internal
> termination or a piggy-back terminator.
>
> 2. The card does not supply termination power.
>
> There is a single diode modification that can rectify this. Another
> option (my preference) is to make sure that at least one of the
> connected devices is able to supply termination power.
>
> 3. The firmware is limited to seven logical partitions.
>
> These partitions may be spread over as many as 7 SCSI devices connected
> to the card. Under ProDOS-8, this gives a practical limit of 224 MB
> accessible over all volumes. Note that you need to be running ProDOS-8
> 2.0.1 or later to be able to access more than 4 partitions, and this
> requires at least an enhanced IIe. Under earlier ProDOS versions, you
> can only access 3 or 4 partitions if the card is in slot 5.
>
> The seven partition limit does not apply under GS/OS, which uses its own
> drivers.
>
> 4. The firmware doesn't fully support removable hard drives, including
> devices like ZIP drives.
>
> The problem is that if you switch disks, the firwmare does not update
> its saved copy of the partition table. This can easily result in
> corruption of the new disk if it is not partitioned EXACTLY the same as
> the previous one (right down to the starting block number and number of
> blocks in each partition).
>
> This problem doesn't affect GS/OS, and you can work around it under
> ProDOS-8 by rebooting if you need to change disks.
>
> Note that if you boot via GS/OS and then get into ProDOS-8, quitting to
> GS/OS and relaunching ProDOS-8 might not be sufficient to reinitialize
> the firmware (I haven't investigated this).
>
> 5. The firwmare only supports SCSI hard disks and CD-ROM drives. CD
> Audio operations are only supported with Apple's original CDSC, CDSC+
> and CD-150.
>
> This isn't likely to be a major issue.
>
> 6. The card is slow.
>
> The Apple High-Speed (DMA) SCSI card is a lot faster (as long as DMA can
> be used), and the RamFast is even better.
>
> 7. The partitioning software that comes with it is pretty limited.
>
> If you didn't get the disk, this isn't an issue. A much nicer 8-bit
> alternative is Chinook SCSI Utilities, which is now freeware. (I don't
> know of a source for it off-hand.)
>
> You can also use Advanced Disk Utility under GS/OS.
>
> --
> David Empson
> dempson_at_actrix.gen.nz
> Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand
>
>
>
Received on Tue Oct 30 2001 - 17:00:00 GMT