Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: Dr_Righteous on July 20, 2003, 03:33:46 PM
-
Ok, so, we have all sorts of devices available via PCI on our Amigas... Wonderful! But, I find it odd that no drivers for PCI SCSI boards exist. Am I alone in this thought? "Write your own!!" yeah yeah I know... I just figured this would have been one of the first drivers written. *shrug*
-
SCSI is a power tool for the most wealthy and/or power hungry users. Most people don't need it.
Saying that, MOS has a SCSI driver for PCI cards. ;-)
-
scsi and a ata bridge driver is in development...for mediators (AFAIK)
check elbox , anyway its been on there for a long time , but its not progressing it seems.
anyway mostly all ppc cards have some sort of scsi interfaces , but csppc uis the only one with ultrawide.
scsi cards can be found for 68k cards aswell, like blizzard mkIv ..will work on 030,040 and 060 cards. (PHASE5/DCE)
-
I've been wondering the same thing, but Elbox doesn't have any interest to write drivers :( They think there's many more important drivers to write or something :/ I've been asking this on various places too... I'd just love to have UW-controller on my a1200 or even SCSI-2 would be nice.. I'm out of space on my scsi-chain on Blizzard's scsi-kit :/ And I don't think that scsi would be important only "power users" or something... it just makes every classic Amiga so much snappier to use. Useless load out from 68k makes wonders sometimes. And little older and used SCSI-devices are almost free nowadays...
-
I wonder, how well SCSI cards in Mediator could perform...
*IF* speed (&CPU usage) would be something, like it is with Classic
Squirrel, there wouldn't be much reason to bother :-)
(Well, that would still enable connection of SCSI scanners etc.)
Haven't bought Mediator myself, and most likely never will...
If you ask me, Elbox has really bad attitude problems,
and that sure affects usability of their hardware...
Only drivers for 68k processors (no MOS support, for example),
no OpenPCI etc...
But I guess, the hardware is okay... Or at least as okay, as something
tha plugs into ageing A1200 can be...
pVC:
You forgot to mention possibility of buying "standard" cheap IDE drive
and connecting it with SCSIDE-adapter... That's how many do it
nowadays...
-
Jupp3: yeah, I forgot to mention that. You can get big and new harddisks to scsi with that adapter at not much extra cost compared to ide. With all the advantages of the scsi of course.
-
Probably there are no SCSI drivers yet because you won't be able to boot from a device connected to the PCI card, unless you have a ROMulus or similar that offers PCI and SCSI drivers at power-up.
Bye,
Thomas
-
The problem I see is the lack of real DMA transfers between the motherboard and the Mediator... with SCSI you don't use much cpu, but with a mediator you would have to take the data with the cpu from the voodoo3 ram gfx ram... that would be crappy and slow... and don't forget that Elbox also sells Powerflyers...
-
I'm just the type that thinks the more drives the better... That and I prefer SCSI CDRW over ATAPI.
I'm also the sicko planning on cramming one of my Miggys into a MASSIVE Compaq Proliant case (roughly 24" tall full tower case)... And hope to use the Compaq hard drive bays.
If I use my A1200 boards, I end up with no option for SCSI, since I intend to use the much cheaper Viper accellerator, which has no SCSI onboard.
If I use my A4000D board, I'm left with the hope that Vesalia makes an accellerator for it, as Cyberstorms are just too damned expensive.
Ahh the things we do to keep our Miggys modern...
-
Old thread i know bit has anyone ever tried this?
http://aminet.net/package/driver/media/aic78xx.device
-
Old thread i know bit has anyone ever tried this?
http://aminet.net/package/driver/media/aic78xx.device
Bump this old thread..
Has anyone used a pci SCSI card like the Adaptec AHA2940UW on a mediator board . I would like to build a amiga 1200 tower "again" and want to be able to connect to my external scsi box for backup etc "or more for the fun of it".
If anyone has used it how fast is it?
-
Not yet... I have one of the supported Adapted cards but never got around to actually test it. Might give it a try.
-
Not yet... I have one of the supported Adapted cards but never got around to actually test it. Might give it a try.
It would be really nice if you could.
-
that driver is very basic and pretty slow afair, about 1mbs or so. i once even volunteered to test it but it never came to that, as development was given up i think.
-
Jupp3: yeah, I forgot to mention that. You can get big and new harddisks to scsi with that adapter at not much extra cost compared to ide. With all the advantages of the scsi of course.
Actually, if anyone wants one, I'll send you an 18gb SCSI 2 wide drive for the cost of shipping.
I replaced them with Ultra320 drives (which will also work on an SCSI 2 controller).
I think I paid $15 for the 75gb ones I've got (and they're 15K drives - really quick).
BTW - I thought the SCSI drivers were available already. They list specific cards.
-
Bump this old thread..
Has anyone used a pci SCSI card like the Adaptec AHA2940UW on a mediator board . I would like to build a amiga 1200 tower "again" and want to be able to connect to my external scsi box for backup etc "or more for the fun of it".
If anyone has used it how fast is it?
I have one stashed, but I had to put off investing in an A4000 to finish up some other projects.
I'd really like to see how well this would work (compared to the relatively slow PATA transfers supported by the Amiga).
-
Well, I'm attempting to get my SCSI drive working with the mediator.
I thought I had a 2940UW laying around, and I DID! Found it today, grabbed my 73GB 10k Cheetah Ultra160 drive out of my old ex-server box, and hooked it up.
Initially I couldn't get anything but HDToolbox to say "There's an unknown device" Then I found a page that suggested changing the HDToolbox icon info for using the uaehf.device, so I changed that to aic78xx.device and it found the drive, and I partitioned it. Now the question is... how do I actually get AmigaOS to see it? Not only that, but how would I go about making it so that I could use it as my only drive?
I'm guessing because it goes through the mediator that I'd need to do some LoadModule trickery? Anyone have any ideas?
slaapliedje
-
Now the question is... how do I actually get AmigaOS to see it?
Actually the driver should mount the partition once it is loaded. If it doesn't you have to use a program like Mounter which comes with OS 3.9.
Not only that, but how would I go about making it so that I could use it as my only drive?
You can't. A driver for a bootable controller needs to be in a ROM. The Mediator does not have such a ROM, so it's not bootable. You have to boot from a floppy disk or another harddrive on a bootable controller, then you can load the SCSI driver and mount partitions.
You are right in thinking that LoadModule could make the driver resident. If the driver supports that (and mounts partitions), that is. This works after the Amiga has booted once. But after power-on you have to boot from a controller with ROM, otherwise LoadModule cannot be loaded.
-
Yeah, I thought that's what the case was going to be. I also tend to think there are other driver bits that initialize the Mediator (since things like the network card and the Radeon aren't detected until after installing the Mediator software).
Oh well, it's probably for the best, the 10k RPM drive is hurting my ears, and I don't have the room in the case at the moment anyhow!
Thanks for the input. I've spent too much money in the past few months on this anyhow, eventually I'll be trying out one of these bad boys;
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connectivity-44-pin-Compact-Adapter/dp/B0036DDXUM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1371282964&sr=8-3&keywords=compact+flash+to+ide
I'll have to find out if it shows up as two different drives or one big one, not sure. Anyone else try this out?
slaapliedje
-
Well, I'm attempting to get my SCSI drive working with the mediator.
I thought I had a 2940UW laying around, and I DID! Found it today, grabbed my 73GB 10k Cheetah Ultra160 drive out of my old ex-server box, and hooked it up.
Initially I couldn't get anything but HDToolbox to say "There's an unknown device" Then I found a page that suggested changing the HDToolbox icon info for using the uaehf.device, so I changed that to aic78xx.device and it found the drive, and I partitioned it. Now the question is... how do I actually get AmigaOS to see it? Not only that, but how would I go about making it so that I could use it as my only drive?
I'm guessing because it goes through the mediator that I'd need to do some LoadModule trickery? Anyone have any ideas?
slaapliedje
hehe I love bringing old helpfull threads back to life!....thanks for ther reminder about changing the HDToolBox icon info to aic78xx.device ;D
-
I have a working SCSI PCI card for my mediator in my 4000T. They are specific few cards and the drivers are listed on the mediator 3rd party drivers on the Elbox site. You cant use it to boot though, it only works after the system comes up and loads the PCI driver.