[HECnet] Largest PATA drive that a DS10 can use?

[Cory Smelosky]

On 29 Nov 2012, at 16:20, Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
Sorry, I know longer have an Alpha so I can not try this myself.    But I'll be glad to answer any question I can about it.     Frankly I've forgotten if it was 28 or 48 bits - but check the FreeBSD/Alpha sources on FreeBSD.org.    The DS10 was one of the systems that it supported and it should be reasonable easy to figure out from the driver.   Another thought is look at Supnik's simh sources, when he might have it in there.      As you say the support chipset is fairly late Si so their a high probability that it will work.    If it does, I would expect that a IDE to XXX converter will work also so you could put current manufactured disks into it.     

A little known fact about the Alphas.    DEC (and Sun for that matter) both used a triple interface Qlogic controller (I've forgotten the model number - but both companies used but with slightly different  roms.    That was the default controller for the DEC written OSs.    But because of NT, DEC had to support the Adaptec family also and any DS10 or equiv that shipped with NT on it had an Adaptec 2940 controller not a Qlogic in it.    The boot roms will work fine if you put one into it.    In fact when we did the FreeBSD port, we  started with Adaptec controller because at the time *BSD did not have a Qlogic driver.

Speaking of NT on Alpha, does HECnet have any Alphas running NT?

If not, which alphas did NT support? I might try to bring up NT/alpha in a VM.



Furthuremore, it's not in any SPD that I know of, but Tru64 will recognize and boot from an Adaptec controller -- the DS10 in my office MRO did just that.    IIRC: VMS will work with an Adaptec but can not boot off it.


On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 12:50 PM, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
On 11/29/2012 12:37 PM, Oleg Safiullin wrote:
>> I've currently got 3 x 127 GB PATA drives on CHIMPY - what is the
>> largest drive this machine (DS10) will be capable of using?
>
> "Compaq AlphaServer DS10 Systems, Technical Summary":
>
> Page 7:
> ---
> Disks supported are 20 and 40 GB IDE disks and 18.2 and 36.4
> GB UltraSCSI disks. In addition, a 72.8 GB universal wide
> Ultra3 SCSI disk is supported with the front access storage
> cage.
>
> Page 12
> ---
> System storage 108 GB SCSI or 120 GB IDE with internal storage cage or
> 218 GB SCSI with front access storage cage
>
> --
> I'm using two IDE disks: 80Gb and 120Gb.

   Uhh..."supported" and "will work" are often two very different things
in DECland.   I wouldn't consider a documentation quote very
authoritative here at all.

   That said, the DS10 is a fairly late-model Alpha, introduced in 1999.
  I'd expect it to at least support 28-bit LBA, topping out at ~137GB,
but it may support 48-bit LBA (BIG).   I don't recall ever having used a
drive larger than 120GB on a DS10.

   Of course for SCSI, the real limit may be much higher.   There are lots
of ways to get big storage on a PCI-based Alpha.

                       -Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA