Need help with DSSI/SCSI and an ext CD-ROM

From: Curt Vendel <curt_at_atari-history.com>
Date: Sun Oct 27 09:33:00 2002

Fred,

   Thanks dude and no your not the bringer of bad news, your just helping me
relearn all of this, I used to work for Bay State Computer Group almost 10
years ago, and while most of my work was building and installing
SparcServers, I did get to do a lot of MV3100's and MV II's as well as setup
DECservers so I am very rusty at all of this and while it's disappointing to
hit another bump in the road to getting this system up and running, at least
I'm learning a lot along the way, I will see if I can scrounge up a KZQSA or
maybe a CMD443 board. I have an M5976-SA but the system doesn't seem to
like it and I did some searching and I don't think its compatible with the
BA440 chassis.

    Thanks for the fast response, this is fun :-)


Curt


----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred N. van Kempen" <Fred.van.Kempen_at_microwalt.nl>
To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2002 10:06 AM
Subject: RE: Need help with DSSI/SCSI and an ext CD-ROM


> Curt,
>
> > On the 4000-200 on the far left side of the QBus slots is
> > a slot with 2 connectors, one appears to be a standard
> > SCSI-1 connector and the other is an inverse SCSI-2 connector
> > (labels Bus 0) with a terminator on it that lights up on power
> > up.
> The first one indeed is a SCSI connector. The second one is the
> DSSI bus connector, connected to bus #0. It should be terminated
> (with the lighted term) unless you have an external storage cab,
> which then in turn has the term.
>
> The SCSI connector, however, is NOT usable for what you're doing.
> The BA440 box (which is what your cab sounds like) has provisions
> for changing its internal (DSSI) bus into a SCSI bus, for example
> to be used with the KFQSA controller. That way, you can use SCSI
> devices with the VAX by mounting them in the old DSSI rails.
>
> The VAX does _NOT_ have a SCSI controller by default; unless you
> have something like a KFQSA, Dilog or Emulex SCSI-to-Qbus controller,
> you can NOT use the RRD43.
>
> Sorry to be the bringer of Bad Newz (tm)..
>
> Cheers,
> Fred
>
Received on Sun Oct 27 2002 - 09:33:00 GMT