HP 9000/755 EISA SCSI Interface Cards

Hi,

over time I have added a lot of devices to this box, as it's
performance is still fine for what I need.
My problem is that I'd need a second fw/differential and also
a second fw/se bus.
The hvd adapter is to connect the second controller of a hitachi
raid-array, and the se to get rid of the scsi problems resulting
from the overlenghtened internal scsi bus. (I had to put a dds3
tape and cdrom on the external connector)

I'd like to know if someone knows of any sources of suitable EISA
Adapters. (Assuming a plain Adaptec won't work

Also, does anyone know what the maximum bandwidth for all EISA Slots
sums up to? I remember something like 11MB/s sustained and 33MB/s peak,
which would be completely fine with me.

(Specs: hp9000/755-99, 512MB, HP-UX 11.00.
Internal SCSI/SE: passive terminator, scsi disk drive, dds2 tape,
nakamichji cdrom autochanger, sony cdr.
On the external connector: dds3 tape and 32x plextor (active term)
External SCSI/WD: Sun 214 RSM, Hitachi DF-300)

Thank You very much for any kind of information..

Interesting collection of SCSI devices. What is the SCSI interface chip on the
system board? Match up an EISA controller with the same chip, and you might
well avoid any serious software compatibility issues... Ben Myers

On 18 Oct 2003 18:29:10 -0700, (Florian Heigl) wrote:

>Hi,
>
>over time I have added a lot of devices to this box, as it's
>performance is still fine for what I need.
>My problem is that I'd need a second fw/differential and also
>a second fw/se bus.
>The hvd adapter is to connect the second controller of a hitachi
>raid-array, and the se to get rid of the scsi problems resulting
>from the overlenghtened internal scsi bus. (I had to put a dds3
>tape and cdrom on the external connector)
>
>I'd like to know if someone knows of any sources of suitable EISA
>Adapters. (Assuming a plain Adaptec won't work
>
>Also, does anyone know what the maximum bandwidth for all EISA Slots
>sums up to? I remember something like 11MB/s sustained and 33MB/s peak,
>which would be completely fine with me.
>
>(Specs: hp9000/755-99, 512MB, HP-UX 11.00.
>Internal SCSI/SE: passive terminator, scsi disk drive, dds2 tape,
>nakamichji cdrom autochanger, sony cdr.
>On the external connector: dds3 tape and 32x plextor (active term)
>External SCSI/WD: Sun 214 RSM, Hitachi DF-300)
>
>Thank You very much for any kind of information..

Another alternative is HP makes a FWD to LVD/SE adapter. They are used
to connect DDS & DVD to the FWD card on SuperDomes.

ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers) wrote in message news:<>...
> Interesting collection of SCSI devices. What is the SCSI interface chip on the
> system board? Match up an EISA controller with the same chip, and you might
> well avoid any serious software compatibility issues... Ben Myers

That was a real good starting point...

[from openpa.net]
NCR 53C700 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-wide high voltage differential (HVD) SCSI-2

These are both integrated to the ASP2 chipset but both adressed
through the regular ncrscsi (don't remeber the real name...) driver.
So I'll 'only' have to find a ncr-based EISA card with a !xxxx.cfg
file.
Which won't be much easier but still broadens the options...

I don't want to go the way of using a HVD-SE adapter as I want to
split up the devices to more SCSI-busses and also hook up some more
tape drives.
(The box being my backup host, that's also the reason for the second
differential adapter, though I'll probably hook both controllers to
one scsi chain. If the internal fwd fails I'd have to swap the system
board anyway.)

Thank You!

The Colorado operation that did the NCR 53C700 series chips has long been passed
around like an unwanted stepchild. NCR (previously AT&T computers) spun off the
SCSI chip operation as Symbios. LSI Logic later acquired Symbios. You can find
information about these chips on the LSI Logic web site, but probably nothing
about freestanding EISA (or ISA?) cards that used them. The NCR chips also
showed up on the motheboards of Wintel computers... Ben Myers

On 20 Oct 2003 01:20:31 -0700, (Florian Heigl) wrote:

>ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers) wrote in message news:<>...
>> Interesting collection of SCSI devices. What is the SCSI interface chip on the
>> system board? Match up an EISA controller with the same chip, and you might
>> well avoid any serious software compatibility issues... Ben Myers
>
>That was a real good starting point...
>
>[from openpa.net]
>NCR 53C700 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
>NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-wide high voltage differential (HVD) SCSI-2
>
>These are both integrated to the ASP2 chipset but both adressed
>through the regular ncrscsi (don't remeber the real name...) driver.
>So I'll 'only' have to find a ncr-based EISA card with a !xxxx.cfg
>file.
>Which won't be much easier but still broadens the options...
>
>I don't want to go the way of using a HVD-SE adapter as I want to
>split up the devices to more SCSI-busses and also hook up some more
>tape drives.
>(The box being my backup host, that's also the reason for the second
>differential adapter, though I'll probably hook both controllers to
>one scsi chain. If the internal fwd fails I'd have to swap the system
>board anyway.)
>
>Thank You!

Possibly this URL will provide you with helpful information:

http://www.ebcon.com/docs/hp9000_models.html

In addition, I recall that the NCR/Symbios Logic 53C800-series chips are upward
compatible from the 53C700 chips. So if you can find a 53C800 EISA card with
CFG file, it also ought to work in your computer.

Last of all, the Mylex DAC960 series of RAID adapters use one of the NCR 53C700
or 53C800 chips, and a long time ago Mylex made an EISA card. You would first
probably have to attach a Mylex card to a Wintel computer and run the Mylex
utilities to disable the RAID functions, which would probably not work at all on
an HP 9000. The DAC960 controllers have one, two, or three internal wide SCSI
connectors (and independent SCSI buses). A couple of years ago, I scrapped
some Mylex EISA DAC960 cards, because I could not find anyone to buy them.

Mylex is also a step-child of the computer industry. The original RAID
controllers were made by startup called BusTek, who changed the company name to
BusLogic. Mylex, previously only a motherboard manufacturer, bought out
BusLogic and subsequently sold itself to IBM ! In the last two or three years,
IBM sold off its SCSI card operations to (once again) LSI Logic, who also bought
up the NCR chipset operations.

BusLogic/Mylex also had a simple (non-RAID) EISA SCSI host adapter which used an
NCR SCSI chip... Ben Myers



On 20 Oct 2003 01:20:31 -0700, (Florian Heigl) wrote:

>ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers) wrote in message news:<>...
>> Interesting collection of SCSI devices. What is the SCSI interface chip on the
>> system board? Match up an EISA controller with the same chip, and you might
>> well avoid any serious software compatibility issues... Ben Myers
>
>That was a real good starting point...
>
>[from openpa.net]
>NCR 53C700 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2
>NCR 53C720 16-bit Fast-wide high voltage differential (HVD) SCSI-2
>
>These are both integrated to the ASP2 chipset but both adressed
>through the regular ncrscsi (don't remeber the real name...) driver.
>So I'll 'only' have to find a ncr-based EISA card with a !xxxx.cfg
>file.
>Which won't be much easier but still broadens the options...
>
>I don't want to go the way of using a HVD-SE adapter as I want to
>split up the devices to more SCSI-busses and also hook up some more
>tape drives.
>(The box being my backup host, that's also the reason for the second
>differential adapter, though I'll probably hook both controllers to
>one scsi chain. If the internal fwd fails I'd have to swap the system
>board anyway.)
>
>Thank You!

I know that in the NIC space, HP has pretty consistenty asked for
unique subvendor IDs, and the NIC drivers provided by HP for HP-UX
have looked exclusively for those subvendor IDs. I've not followed
the HBA space as closely, but you may want to keep that in mind in
your search.

At one time HP sold a "25525a EISA SCSI Differential Interface" which
had as its description:

1.1 Product Description
[The EISA SCSI HBA provides the following features: ]
[ * conforms to the SCSI-II standard (ANSI X3.131-1990 SCSI-2) ]
[ * provides a standard 8-bit data path ]
[ * high-speed operation with transfer rates of up to 10 Mbytes/s ]
[ * supports up to 7 differential devices on one SCSI bus with ]
[ a maximum cable length of 25 meters ]
[ * implements differential transceivers which allows connection ]
[ to fast SCSI differential peripherals ]
[ * supports two handshaking protocols, synchronous/asynchronous ]
[ * software programmable options including ]
[ -SCSI bus address ]
[ -parity checking capability ]
[ -interrupt level ]

which suggests that the device was not "wide" although it was
differential (and presumeably high-voltage). Whether that would work
with a current-day HVD device I do not know. I seems to have last
shipped from HP in the Fall of 1993.

There was also the "A2679A: EISA Bus Single Ended SCSI HBA" which
appears to have last shipped from HP in the Fall of 1992.

hth,

rick jones
--
a wide gulf separates "what if" from "if only"
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to raj in cup.hp.com but NOT BOTH...

Ben Myers schrieb:
>
> Possibly this URL will provide you with helpful information:
>
> http://www.ebcon.com/docs/hp9000_models.html
>
> In addition, I recall that the NCR/Symbios Logic 53C800-series chips are upward
> compatible from the 53C700 chips. So if you can find a 53C800 EISA card with
> CFG file, it also ought to work in your computer.
....
Any kind of Wintel EISA controller will most likely fail in the HP.
Lot of 53C7x0 chips were used on Raid and Cache controllers of all
flavour,
but all of them used unique drivers and no generic NCR 53C7x0 drivers.
The closest you might get is the Compaq Fast SCSI or fast wide SCSI EISA
using NCR 53C710 and 53C825 chips without any own firmware.
If its not this urgent I may check if one of these work with the 715?
The only thing I own working for sure is an old HP HVD Narrow
controller,
but you most likely dont like going HVD narrow i believe?
There is a HP made HVD wide with non EISA but GSC connector
which will be of no use in the 755.
http://www.openpa.net/systems/images/a2874-66005.jpg

Sorry for the bad news.

Only solution may be a SCSI bridge controller?

Gereon Wenzel
www.eisapc.de

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 16:02:43 +0200, Gereon Wenzel
<> wrote:


>
>Only solution may be a SCSI bridge controller?

Have a look at HP part C4316A - External SE to FWD converter


Robert Klute
Cupertino Solution Center
Hewlett-Packard Company
-----
The opinions are those of the poster, not the company.

Robert Klute <> wrote in message news:<>. ..
> On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 16:02:43 +0200, Gereon Wenzel
> <> wrote:
>
>
> >
> >Only solution may be a SCSI bridge controller?
>
> Have a look at HP part C4316A - External SE to FWD converter

I have one of these around, but it will most likely be a last
resort, as I'd be forced to move all the (hvd) scsi-disks' ids to
include maybe one or two tape drives.
But I'll probably end up just there, give it try, unless of course
heavens start to let rain A4031A Fibrechannel interfaces and fc-scsi
routers...

Regards,
Florian