[4738] in linux-scsi channel archive
Re: SCA (-2 or -3) drives?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Meissner)
Sun Sep 27 21:52:17 1998
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 21:45:36 -0400
From: Michael Meissner <meissner@cygnus.com>
To: Brendan Miller <brmiller@wco.com>, linux-scsi@vger.rutgers.edu
In-Reply-To: <19980927124710.10300@xenon.kudzu.gammalink.com>; from Brendan Miller on Sun, Sep 27, 1998 at 12:47:10PM -0700
On Sun, Sep 27, 1998 at 12:47:10PM -0700, Brendan Miller wrote:
>
> Here's a question I've been dying to ask for several years...
>
> What's the deal with the SCA 80-pin connector drives? Will they work
> in a PC with the 80-50 or 80-68 adapter? Is this a safe thing if the
> "microcode" on the drive is not specifically for a Sun or some other
> beast?
By and large, SCSI is SCSI.
Works for many of us. I have seen posted tales of woe if you plug a wide
Quantum Viking into a narrow-only scsi controller. My viking is in a removable
disk cartridge and works on Adaptec 2940UW at work (in a narrow enclosure), and
a TekRam 390F at home (hooked to the wide bus).
> It is frequent that I see 80-pin SCA-2 or SCA-3 drives for sale cheap,
> and it is tempting to load up my SCSI chain with them, but are there
> gremlins lurking?
Of course there are always gremlins. If you look at the model #'s, the disks
that come on to onsale, computer geeks, etc. are drives that are 1-2 steps
behind the current models (ie, the Viking-1 is flooding the secondary channels,
having been replaced by the Viking-2 or Atlas-whatever, the seagates tend to be
the first or second generation Baracuddas or Hawks).
Note, the previous generation 7200 RPM disks were fairly noisy, and are much
more heat sensitive than the current generation. So, you do have to make sure
the thing is cooled properly. My viking is definately noisier than then Hawk
2lp I have in the system.
I've seen some postings stating that some Quantum phone operators wouldn't
honor the warranty if you use a converter, since that is out of spec (ie, the
disk was made to be plugged into a real SCA backplane). I suspect they were
overwhelmed with calls when the Viking hit the streets, particularly with
people who just wanted cheap disks and didn't have proper termination or had
cheap converters.
Bear in mind that many converters don't supply termination, so you will need an
appropriate terminator on your cable (my current opinion is that you should
never use the default termination supplied by any device -- this is
particularly true if you have old tape drives).
> What's the *FULL* story?
The disks are being dumped before shutting down the production line. Get them
while the getting is good.
--
Michael Meissner, Cygnus Solutions (Massachusetts office)
4th floor, 955 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
meissner@cygnus.com, 617-354-5416 (office), 617-354-7161 (fax)
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