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From: ralf@chpc.org (Ralph Valentino)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.comm,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.* Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Part 1/4
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc
Date: 18 Jan 1994 16:33:42 GMT
Organization: Center For High Performance Computing
Lines: 1304
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Expires: 11 Feb 1994 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <2hh316$ok8@bigboote.WPI.EDU>
Reply-To: ralf@wpi.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: wpi.wpi.edu
Summary: This is a monthly posting containing a list of Frequently
Asked Questions (and their answers) pertaining to hardware
and IBM PC clones. It should be read by anyone who wishes
to post to any group in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.*
hierarchy.
Originator: ralf@wpi.WPI.EDU
Archive-name: pc-hardware-faq/part1
Last-modified: 1994/01/10
Version: 1.0
This FAQ was compiled and written by Willie Lim and Ralph Valentino
with numerous contributions by others. Acknowledgements are listed at
end of this FAQ.
Copyright notice:
The comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.* Frequently Asked Questions is
distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY. No author or distributor accepts responsibility to anyone
for the consequences of using it or for whether it serves any
particular purpose or works at all, unless he says so in writing.
Refer to the GNU General Public License for full details.
Everyone is granted permission to copy, modify and redistribute this
FAQ, but only under the conditions described in the GNU General Public
License. Among other things, the copyright notice and this notice
must be preserved on all copies.
Where section authors are noted, the copyright is held by that author.
Where no author is noted, the copyright is held by the FAQ editors
Willie Lim (wlim@lehman.com) and Ralph Valentino (ralf@wpi.wpi.edu).
Changes, additions, comments, suggestions and questions to:
Ralph Valentino ralf@wpi.edu
Table of Contents:
S) 1.0 Introduction
Q) 1.1 What does this FAQ cover?
Q) 1.2 Where can I find the latest copy of this FAQ?
Q) 1.3 Is it ok to (sell/buy/job-offer/advertise) things here?
Q) 1.4 Where should I post?
Q) 1.5 How come no one answers my questions?
Q) 1.6 What are the going prices for...?
Q) 1.7 What is the history of the IBM PC?
S) 2.0 Motherboards
Q) 2.1 What are the differences between the 80x86 CPUs?
Q) 2.2 How do I pick the right processor?
Q) 2.3 What is the difference between the 386SX/386DX and 486SX/486DX?
Q) 2.4 What is a ZIF socket?
Q) 2.5 What is over clocking and should I do it?
Q) 2.6 Which is faster, a DX-50 or DX2-66
Q) 2.7 *What is the P24T/Overdrive?
Q) 2.8 *What are the differences between the 80x87 co-processors?
Q) 2.9 *Would a co-processor speed up my machine?
Q) 2.10 *Can I use a x387 with my 486?
Q) 2.11 Memory terminology, what does it mean?
Q) 2.12 What happen to my 384k?
Q) 2.13 How do I tell how big/fast my SIMMs are?
Q) 2.14 What speed SIMMs do I need?
Q) 2.15 Will 9 chip and 3 chip SIMMs work together?
Q) 2.16 What do wait states and burst rates in my BIOS mean?
Q) 2.17 Cache terminology, what does it mean?
Q) 2.18 How do I upgrade the size of my cache?
Q) 2.19 Do I need to fill the "dirty tag" RAM socket on my motherboard?
Q) 2.20 How fast do my cache RAMs have to be?
Q) 2.21 Which is the best cache policy, write-through or "write-back?"
Q) 2.22 What about an n-way set associative cache, isn't it better?
Q) 2.23 *Which is better, ISA/EISA/VLB?
Q) 2.24 *What are the (dis)advantages of ISA/VLB/EISA SCSI?
Q) 2.25 *What is PCI?
Q) 2.26 Will an ISA card work in an MCA (PS/2) machine?
Q) 2.27 *What does the "chip set" do?
Q) 2.28 What is bus matering and how do I know if I have it?
Q) 2.29 Can I put an ISA cards in EISA slots?
Q) 2.30 How should I configure ISA/VLB cards in the EISA config utility?
Q) 2.31 What is the difference between EISA Standard and Enhanced modes?
Q) 2.32 Is there any point in putting more than 16M in an ISA machine?
Q) 2.33 What disadvantages are there to the HiNT EISA chip set?
Q) 2.34 *Should I change the ISA bus speed?
Q) 2.35 Where do all the IRQ's go?
S) 3.0 IO controllers/interfaces
Q) 3.1 *How do IDE/MFM/RLL/ESDI/SCSI interfaces work?
Q) 3.2 *How can I tell if I have MFM/RLL/ESDI/IDE/SCSI?
Q) 3.3 *Do caching controllers really help?
Q) 3.4 Do IDE controllers use DMA?
Q) 3.5 *How do I get an MFM/RLL/ESDI & IDE drive to coexist with each other?
Q) 3.6 *Why won't my two IDE drives work together?
Q) 3.7 *Which is better, VLB or ISA IDE?
Q) 3.8 How I install a second controller?
Q) 3.9 Which is better, SCSI or IDE?
Q) 3.10 Can MFM/RLL/ESDI/IDE and SCSI coexist?
Q) 3.11 What's the difference between SCSI and SCSI-2? Are they compatible?
Q) 3.12 Can I share SCSI devices between computers?
Q) 3.13 How do I swap A: and B:
Q) 3.14 What is a 16550 and do I need one?
Q) 3.15 *Are there any >4 serial port cards?
Q) 3.16 Should I buy an internal or external modem?
Q) 3.17 What do all of the modem terms mean?
Q) 3.18 *What kinds of sound cards are avalable?
Q) 3.19 Where can I find EISA sound and IO cards?
Q) 3.20 *How does the keyboard interface work?
Q) 3.21 *Can I fake a keyboard so my computer will boot without it?
S) 4.0 Storage/Retrieval Devices
Q) 4.1 What is the CMOS/jumper setting for my hard drive?
Q) 4.2 Why do I lose x Meg on my hard drive?
Q) 4.3 *Should I get an IDE/floppy/SCSI tape drive?
Q) 4.4 How come I can't fit as much stuff on my tape drive as they claim?
S) 5.0 Video
Q) 5.1 *Can I use two video cards in the same system?
Q) 5.2 *What kinds of monitors are available?
Q) 5.3 *Can I get an RGB monitor to work with my PC?
Q) 5.4 *How can I hook more than one monitor to my video card?
Q) 5.5 *Which video card is best for DOS/Windows/X11/OS2?
Q) 5.6 *What is the black horizontal line on my monitor?
S) 6.0 Systems
Q) 6.1 *What should I upgrade first?
Q) 6.2 *Do I need a CPU fan / heat sink?
Q) 6.3 What does the turbo switch do?
Q) 6.4 Should I turn my computer/monitor off?
Q) 6.5 Are there any manufacturers/distributers who read the net?
S) 7.0 Diagnostics
Q) 7.1 *What do the POST beeps mean?
Q) 7.2 What do the POST codes mean?
Q) 7.3 *I think my cache is bad. What's a good diagnostic?
S) 8.0 Misc
Q) 8.1 What is the pin out for ...?
Q) 8.2 *Where are benchmark programs located. What do they mean?
Q) 8.3 What size should I set my DOS partitions to be?
Q) 8.4 Why won't my system boot from the hard drive?
Q) 8.5 How do I clean my computer?
Q) 8.6 *What OS's are available for the PC? Which are free?
Q) 8.7 *How can I transfer files from my PC to a Unix system?
Q) 8.8 Why doesn't my new device work as fast as it should?
Q) 8.9 My drive lists a MTBF of 300,000 hours. Will it really last 34 years?
Q) 8.10 How do I find pin 1 on my chip/card/cable/connector?
Q) 8.11 I've run out of power connectors, what can I do?
S) 9.0 References
Q) 9.1 *What other FAQ's are out there?
Q) 9.2 What do the industry acronyms stand for?
Q) 9.3 Where can I get the ISA/EISA/VLB/PCI/etc specs?
Q) 9.4 What books are available for the PC architecture?
Q) 9.5 What's the phone number for...
S) 10.0 Acknowledgments:
* = incomplete
S) 1.0 Introduction
Q) 1.1 What does this FAQ cover?
This FAQ covers Frequently Asked Questions from all groups in the
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.* hierarchy. Software topics are only
included if they are directly related to hardware or hardware
interfacing.
Q) 1.2 Where can I find the latest copy of this FAQ?
If you haven't done so, new users on the net should read
news.announce.newusers. In particular, the following posts are a good
idea:
A Primer on How to Work With The Usenet Community
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Usenet
Hints on Writing Style for Usenet
This FAQ is currently posted to news.answers,
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom,
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.comm,
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking,
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,
and comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video. All posts to news.answers are
archived and are available via anonymous FTP, uucp and e-mail from the
following locations:
FTP:
FTP is a way of copying file between networked computers. If
you need help in using or getting started with FTP, send
e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq
as the body of the message.
location: rtfm.mit.edu [18.70.0.224]
directory: /pub/usenet/news.answers/csiph-faq
filenames: part1 to part3
location: ftp.uu.net [137.39.1.9]
directory: /archive/usenet/news.answers/csiph-faq
filenames: part1.Z to part3.Z [use uncompress]
location: nic.switch.ch [130.59.1.40]
directory: info_service/Usenet/periodic-postings
filenames: [Check info_service/Usenet/00index]
UUCP:
location: uunet!/archive/usenet/news.answers/csiph-faq/
filenames: part1.Z to part3.Z
E-mail:
Send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu containing these lines:
send usenet/news.answers/csiph-faq/part1
...
send usenet/news.answers/csiph-faq/part3
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware archives
You can find a dozen or more sites in the US, Europe and Japan that
store the FAQ and archives for this various newsgroups by using the
Internet search programs, Archie or Wais.
One location is:
location: wilma.cs.brown.edu:
filenames: pub/csiph/
Q) 1.3 Is it ok to (sell/buy/job-offer/advertise) things here?
No, none of the above fit within the charter of the
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.* hierarchy, therefore such posts are
considered unacceptable. For buying/selling things, use groups with
the words 'wanted' or 'forsale', and for job offers, use groups with
the words 'jobs'. All of these can be found in the misc.* hierarchy.
For comercial advertisements, use only the biz.* hierarchy as per the
guidelines of USENET. (refer to the news.* groups for more
information).
Q) 1.4 Where should I post?
[From: grohol@alpha.acast.nova.edu (John M. Grohol)]
This Pointer will help you find the information you need and get your
questions answered much quicker than if you were to simply crosspost to
every hardware newsgroup in existence. It is provided as a public service.
Comments are welcome.
Question on... Post to...
---------------------------------- --------------------------------
Networking/networks comp.sys.novell
comp.dcom.lans.* (where * equals:
ethernet; fddi; misc; token-ring)
Servers comp.dcom.servers
Modems comp.dcom.modems
Printers comp.periphs.printers
SCSI devices comp.periphs.scsi
Other peripherals comp.periphs
Soundcards comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Other hardware questions comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc
Non-commercial sale of hardware misc.forsale.computers.pc-clone
Commercial sale of hardware biz.computers.hardware
---------------------------------- --------------------------------
Question on... NEW GROUPS TO POST TO:
--------------------------------- --------------------------------
Monitors/video cards comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video
Modems/fax cards/comm questions comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.comm
Hard/floppy/tape drives & media comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
CD-ROM drives & interfaces comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom
Questions on computer vendors comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems
PC networking/networks comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking
System chips/RAM chips/cache comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips
---------------------------------- --------------------------------
All hardware discussions of a misc. nature will be moved to the
new newsgroup, comp.sys.ibm.hardware.misc, in 1 month, at which
time, comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware will be removed. You can help
make this transition easier by posting only to the new misc.
newsgroup now, or at least by crossposting to the new newsgroup.
The new groups were passed during a CFV conducted according to
Usenet Guidelines throughout the month of October, 1993.
Q) 1.5 How come no one answers my questions?
If you don't give enough information when asking your question, then
people will not be able to answer it. If you're not willing to take
the time to look up the necessary information, then why should you
expect people to take the time to answer your question? For instance,
if you're asking a question about SCSI, it is very important to know
what type of SCSI host adapter (controller) you have. Some other
important things to mention are which device drivers/tsr's you are
loading, what other similar devices you have in your system, and
exactly what in your setup has changed since it last worked.
Q) 1.6 What are the going prices for...?
If you're looking for new equipment, pick up a copy of Computer
Shopper. This is the "bible" for buying new equipment. Skim through
it for the best prices and give these distributers a call. In most
cases, the advertisements must be placed months in advance; the actual
price may be even lower than the advertised price! Two other things
to note are the warranty, return policy and location of the company
(companies within the same state as you may be required to add extra
sales taxes).
If you're looking for the expected price of used equipment, then scan
the newsgroup misc.forsale.computers.pc-clone for similar items. This
will give you the best idea as what to expect. Don't make assumptions
that the price of used equipment will follow the market trends of new
equipment. For instance, when new memory prices nearly doubled, the
used prices were barely effected.
Q) 1.7 What is the history of the IBM PC?
[From:]
Around 1978 and '79, the market served by IBM's Data Entry Systems
division began to change. Instead of terminals and minicomputers or
mainframes, customers began demanding autonomous, low cost,
single-user computers with minimal compute power or connectivity, but
compliance to standards like the ASCII alphabet and the BASIC
programming language. The closest product in IBM's line was the 5110,
a closed, BASIC-in-ROM machine with a tiny built-in character display.
The 5110 was uncompetitive, and IBM started losing bids from key
customers, mostly government agencies.
Data Entry commissioned a consulting firm (Boca Associates?) to design
a stop-gap machine to fill what was perceived within IBM as a
short-lived, specialized niche. It was intended that the stop-gap
machine would only be offered for a couple of years until it would be
replaced in "The Product Line" by an internal IBM design. Some IBM
executives believed the single-user desktop system was a fad which
would die out when the shortcomings of such systems became
appreciated.
The motherboard design was based very closely on a single-board
computer described in a 1978 (?) Intel application note. (Anybody got
an original copy of this collector's item? Among other things, Intel
argues that 640KB is more memory than single-user applications will
ever need, because of the efficiency of segmented memory
"management"!) The expansion slot "bus" is based on an Intel bus
called Multibus 1, which Intel introduced in its microprocessor
software development equipment in the mid '70s. The Monochrome and
Color Graphics Display Adapters are based on application notes for the
Motorola 6845 video controller chip, except that the strangely
interlaced pixel addresses in the CGA appears to have been a design
error. The "event driven" keyboard is an original design, but the
concept is from the Xerox Alto and Star graphics workstations. The
keyboard noise and "feel" are intended to emulate those of the IBM
Selectric typewriter. The Cassette Interface design is original, but
similar in concept to the one on the Radio Shack TRS-80.
Data Entry Division approached Digital Research Inc. to offer its
popular CP/M-86 operating system on the machine, but DRI rebuffed
them. IBM's second choice was BASIC-in-ROM vendor Microsoft, which
had no OS product at the time but quickly purchased a crude disk
operating system from struggling Pacific Microsystems(?) to offer it
to IBM. Its command interpreter was an imitation of Unix' Bourne
Shell, with the special characters changed to avoid infringing AT&T's
rights.
Data Entry Division began bidding this system in various State
procurements, without any plan to offer it to the public.
It became obvious that the Cassette Interface and optional 360KB
Flexible Disk Drive were inadequate. The Cassette Interface was
dropped, and an optional Fixed Disk Drive offered on a revised model
known as the IBM Personal Computer XT. (A fixed, or "hard" disk had
been offered on the PC by special order, with a Xebec controller, but
few were sold.) The disk controller was designed around the Western
Digital 1010 chip, and its design is taken directly from a WD
application note.
The XT succeeded beyond all expectations. IBM offered the system to
the public after it became clear that no other division was going to
come up with anything timely. IBM published complete schematics and
ROM listings, encouraging clones.
In 1984, IBM introduced an upwardly compatible model based on the
Intel 80286. The expansion slot "bus" was extended to 16-bit data
path width the same way Intel had extended Multibus: by adding data
and address bits, a signal for boards to announce their capability to
perform 16-bit transfers, and byte swapping on the motherboard to
support the 8-bit boards.
S) 2.0 Motherboards
Q) 2.1 What are the differences between the 80x86 CPUs?
[From: jabram@ichips.intel.com (Jeff Abramson)]
Processors (x86,x88,x286,x386SX/DX,x486SX/DX,Pentium)
The Intel Architecture: Overview
The Intel Architecture has transformed from a simple 16 bit
processor (8086) to the standard for cost-effective, high
performance volume computing. Over 80% of all personal and small
business computers have Intel Architecture processors, ranging from
the 8086 to the Pentium. Since the creation of the Intel386
processor, several imitators have started production of various 386
and 486 versions, some 100% compatible and some not.
The following table describes the Intel family of processors:
Bus widths
CPU Int Ext Adr Speeds (MHz) Comments
--------------------------------------------------------------------
8088 16 16 20 7/4 to 16 PC, PC-XT CPU.
Intel and others
--------------------------------------------------------------------
8086 16 8 20 Max 16 General use with Intel
controller parts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
80186 16 16 20 Max 16 An 8086 with some
integrated components.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
80286 16 16 24 Max 20 The PC-AT CPU. Basic
increase in memory
addressing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel 80386 32 32 32 20,25,33 New features, Jump to
i386 32 bit addressing.
Intel386SX 32 16 24 Smaller bus
Intel386DX 32 32 32
Intel386SL 32 16 24 Low Power (notebooks)
Intel 80387 Math coprocessor for
386 based CPU.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
AMD 386 (Am386) 40 Reversed engineered
SX,DX,SL parts available Intel part with copied
microcode.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel 486 (i486) 32 32 32 20,25,33,50 New features,
i486SX No FloatingPoint
i486DX Includes FloatingPoint
i486SL Low power SX (No FP)
i486DL Low power DX (FP)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel i486DX2 32 32 32 40,50,66 Clock doubled 486DX.
Either add to existing
system or replace CPU.
External speed does not
change. (All have FP)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM Blue Lightning 486 50,66 Clock doubled versions
of IBM's 486 chips.
No FP unit.
75 Clock tripled version.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
AMD Am486 25,33,40,50 Reversed engineered
SX, DX, DXL, DX2 available Intel part with copied
microcode. Currently
attempting a "real"
part.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyrix 486DLC/SLC: This is really a 386
that Cyrix calls a 486.
No FP and is known to
have incompatibilities.
It is pin compatible
with the Intel386.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Intel Pentium: 64 64 32 60,66 Superscalar pipelined
128 core, optimized FP,
64-but burstable bus.
System Mgmt Mode.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Q) 2.2 How do I pick the right processor?
[From: jabram@ichips.intel.com (Jeff Abramson)]
This is a hard question. You have tradeoffs between price,
performance, compatibility, upgradebility, and power consumption.
As a desktop unit owner, you probably have less concerns about
power...
The frequency of the CPU defines how fast its internal clock runs.
This defines how fast instructions are executed. In many ways, this
is meaningless, because a RISC machine (MIPS) running at 100MHz may
in reality be slower than a 50Mhz i486 because a RISC system must
execute more instructions to perform the same function (in some
cases). Even when comparing processors in the same family, this
info can be misleading. For example, an Intel486-25 is faster than
an AMD386-40, since the 486 has microarchitectural advancements over
the 386. The same can be said for the Pentium, where a 66Mhz
Pentium is twice as fast as a 66MHz 486.
For compatibility, keep in mind that the Intel parts are the basis
for all of these processors. Therefore you always run the risk that
an imitator's part may not be compatible. AMD chips are compatible
because they are copied. For some of you, these factors may be
important.
As far as upgradability goes, this depends on both your motherboard
and the processor. If you purchase a 486DX, then you can upgrade to
a DX2 and double your internal clock simply by buying an overdrive
chip if your motherboard has the ZIF socket. If it doesn't then you
can replace the CPU with a DX2. Many new 486 motherboards contain
overdrive sockets for the not-yet-released Pentium chip that is pin
compatible.
Q) 2.3 What is the difference between the 386SX/386DX and 486SX/486DX?
[From: jabram@ichips.intel.com (Jeff Abramson)]
The Intel386DX contains full 32 bit buses for external data,
internal data, and address. The Intel386SX contains a smaller 16
bit external data bus, and a smaller 24 bit address bus.
The Intel486DX contains a floating point unit, the Intel486SX does
not. A common rumor is that the 486SX is simply a DX part that has
a failure in the floating point unit, so it has been disabled and
the part has been produces as an SX. This was true for early
production parts and samples, but not for the mass produces SX parts
that we see today.
Q) 2.4 What is a ZIF socket?
[From: jabram@ichips.intel.com (Jeff Abramson)]
ZIF stands for Zero Insertion Force, and describes a socket on your
motherboard that supports an upgrade processor (overdrive
processor). In general, an overdrive upgrade works in conjunction
with your original processor so you cannot remove the original
processor after upgrade. NOTE: Some motherboards do not have a ZIF
socket so you must replace the existing processor to upgrade.
Q) 2.5 What is over clocking and should I do it?
[From: jabram@ichips.intel.com (Jeff Abramson)]
Overclocking is a term generally used to describe how you have
increased the clock frequency on your board to run your system at a
higher speed. For example, if you plug a 25MHz i486 into a board
that is configured to run a 33MHz i486, then you are overclocking
your CPU. Most boards allow you to configure your clocking via
jumpers, and others require a new clock oscillator.
Although users have had success with overclocking, it is a dangerous
practice for two reasons. First, the chip has been designed to meet
a certain speed. Therefore, some circuits do not have the margin to
operate at a higher frequency. The chips coming from a wafer have
various speed specs (statistical distribution), so you may be lucky
and own a CPU that has the circuit margins you need to overclock.
But you don't know - and if you overclock, you may get data failure.
The data failure may be reproducable - and therefore avoidable, but
most likely not.
Second, you have reliability concerns when overclocking.
Overclocking means faster frequency, which means more current and
power. This can lead to real failures in your CPU.
Electromigration is one such failure where metal lines in your CPU
will actually break or connect if they get too much current. This
is irreversable, and most likely not covered under warranty.
So when can you overclock? Really only if you don't care about
burning out your CPU and you don't care if you get wrong data every
now and then. If you own a machine and you use it just for games,
then overclocking may be something to try - and you simply upgrade
to a new CPU when you burn out the current one. Otherwise, it's not
worth the small performance gain.
Q) 2.6 Which is faster, a DX-50 or DX2-66
The two processors are relatively close for overall usage. The DX-50
has more I/O bandwidth and the DX2-66 has more computational power.
Q) 2.7 *What is the P24T/Overdrive?
Q) 2.8 *What are the differences between the 80x87 co-processors?
Q) 2.9 *Would a co-processor speed up my machine?
Q) 2.10 *Can I use a x387 with my 486?
Q) 2.11 Memory terminology, what does it mean?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
Read/write memory in computers is implemented using Random Access Memory
chips (RAMs). RAMs are also used to store the displayed image in a video
board, to buffer frames in a network controller or sectors in a disk
controller, etc. RAMs are sold by their size (in bits), word width (how
many bits can you access in one cycle), and access time (how fast you
can read a location), among other characteristics.
SRAMs and DRAMs
---------------
RAMs can be classified into two types: "static" and "dynamic."
In a static RAM, each bit is represented by the state of a circuit
with two stable states. Such a "bistable" circuit can be built with four
transistors (for maximum density) or six (for highest speed and lowest
power). Static RAMs (SRAMs) are available in many configurations.
(Almost) all SRAMs have one pin per address line, and all of them
are able to store data for as long as power is applied, without any
external circuit activity.
In a dynamic RAM (DRAM), each bit is represented by the charge on a
*very* small (30-50 femptofarads) capacitor, which is built into a
single, specialized transistor. DRAM storage cells take only about
a quarter of the silicon area that SRAM cells take, and silicon
area translates into cost.
The cells in a DRAM are organized into rows and columns. To access
a bit, you first select its row, and then you select its column.
Unfortunately, the charge leaks off the capacitor over time,
so each cell must be periodically "refreshed" by reading it and
writing it back. This happens automatically whenever a row is accessed.
After you're finished accessing a row, you have to give the DRAM time
to copy the row of bits back to the cells: the "precharge" time.
Because the row and column addresses are not needed at the same
time, they share the same pins. This makes the DRAM package smaller
and cheaper, but it makes the problem of distributing the signals
in the memory array difficult, because the timing becomes so
critical. Signal integrity in the memory array is one of the
things that differentiate a lousy motherboard from a high quality
one.
SIMMs and SIPPs
---------------
Through the 1970s, RAMs were shipped in tubes, and the board makers
soldered them into boards or plugged them into sockets on boards.
This became a problem when end-users started installing their own
RAMs, because the leads ("pins") were too delicate. Also, the
individual dual in-line package (DIP) sockets took up too much board
area.
In the early 1980s, DRAM manufacturers began offering DRAMs on tiny
circuit boards which snap into special sockets, and by the late '80s
these "single in-line memory modules" (SIMMs) had become the most popular
DRAM packaging. Board vendors who didn't trust the new SIMM sockets
used modules with pins: single inline pinned packages (SIPPs),
which plug into sockets with more traditional pin receptacles.
PC-compatibles store each byte in main memory with an associated
check bit, or "parity bit." That's why you add memory in multiples
of nine bits. The most common SIMMs present nine bits of data at
each cycle (we say they're "nine bits wide") and have thirty contact
pads, or "leads." (The leads are commonly called "pins" in the trade,
although "pads" is a more appropriate term. SIMMs don't *have* pins!)
At the high end of the PC market, "36 bit wide" SIMMs with 72 pads
are gaining popularity. Because of their wide data path, 36-bit SIMMs
give the motherboard designer more configuration options (you can
upgrade in smaller chunks) and allow bandwidth-enhancing tricks
(i.e. interleaving) which were once reserved for larger machines.
Another advantage of 72-lead SIMMs is that four of the leads are used
to tell the motherboard how fast the RAMs are, so it can configure
itself automatically. (I do not know whether the current crop of
motherboards takes advantage of this feature.)
"3-chip" and "9-chip" SIMMs
In 1988 and '89, when 1 megabit (1Mb) DRAMs were new, manufacturers
had to pack nine RAMs onto a 1 megabyte (1MB) SIMM. Now (1993) 4Mb DRAMs
are the most cost-effective size. So a 1MB SIMM can be built with
two 4Mb DRAMs (configured 1M x4) plus a 1Mb (x1) for the check-bit.
VRAMs
-----
In graphics-capable video boards, the displayed image is almost
always stored in DRAMs. Access to this data must be shared between
the hardware which continuously copies it to the display device (this
process is called "display refresh" or "video refresh") and
the CPU. Most boards do it by time-sharing ordinary, single-port
DRAMs. But the faster, more expensive boards use specialized DRAMs
which are equipped with a second data port whose function is tailored
to the display refresh operation. These "Video DRAMs" (VRAMs)
have a few extra pins and command a price premium. They nearly double
the bandwidth available to the CPU or graphics engine.
(As far as I know, the first dual-ported DRAMs were built by Four-
Phase Systems Inc., in 1970, for use in their "IV-70" minicomputers, which
had integrated video. The major DRAM vendors started offering VRAMs
in about 1983 [Texas Instruments was first], and workstation vendors
snapped them up. They made it to the PC trade in the late '80s.)
Speed
-----
DRAMs are characterized by the time it takes to read a word,
measured from the row address becoming valid to the data coming out.
This parameter is called Row Access Time, or tRAC. There are many
other timing parameters to a DRAM, but they scale with tRAC
remarkably well. tRAC is measured in nanoseconds (ns).
A nanosecond is one billionth (10 e-9) of a second.
It's so difficult to control the semiconductor fabrication processes,
that the parts don't all come out the same. Instead, their performance
varies widely, depending on many factors. A RAM design which would
yield 50 ns tRAC parts if the fab were always tuned perfectly, instead
yields a distribution of parts from 80 to 50. When the plant is new,
it may turn out mostly nominal 70 ns parts, which may actually deliver
tRAC between 60.1 ns and 70.0 ns, at 70 or 85 degrees Celcius and
4.5 volts power supply. As it gets tuned up, it may turn out mostly 60
ns parts and a few 50s and 70s. When it wears out it may get less
accurate and start yielding more 70s again.
RAM vendors have to test each part off the line to see how fast it is.
An accurate, at-speed DRAM tester can cost several million dollars, and
testing can be a quarter of the cost of the parts. The finished parts
are not marked until they are tested and their speed is known.
Q) 2.12 What happen to my 384k?
The memory between 640k and 1Meg is used for the BIOS, the video
aperture, and a number of other things. With the proper memory
manager, DOS can take advantage of it. Many systems, however, won't
identify its existence on boot. This does not mean it isn't there.
Q) 2.13 How do I tell how big/fast my SIMMs are?
Individual DRAMs are marked with their speed after they are tested.
The mark is usually a suffix to the part number, representing tens of
nanoseconds. Thus, a 511024-7 on a SIMM is very likely a 70 ns DRAM.
(vendor numbering scheme table to be added)
Q) 2.14 What speed SIMMs do I need?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
There is no reliable formula for deriving the required RAM speed from
the clock rate or wait states on the motherboard. Do not buy a
motherboard that doesn't come with a manual that clearly specifies
what speed SIMMs are required at each clock rate. You can always
substitute *faster* SIMMs for the ones that were called out in the
manual. If you are investing in a substantial quantity of RAM,
consider buying faster than you need on the chance you can keep it
when you get a faster CPU.
That said, most 25 MHz and slower motherboards work fine with 80 ns
parts, most 33 MHz boards and some 40 MHz boards were designed for
70 ns parts, and some 40 MHz boards and everything faster require
60 ns or faster. Some motherboards allow programming extra wait states
to allow for slower parts, but some of these designs do not really relax
all the critical timing requirements by doing that. It's much
safer to use DRAMs that are fast enough for the no-wait or one-wait
cycles at the top end of the motherboard's capabilities.
Q) 2.15 Will 9 chip and 3 chip SIMMs work together?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
Almost always. But there are exceptions.
1. Some motherboards do not supply enough refresh address bits for a
4Mb x1 or a 1Mb x4 DRAM. These old motherboards will not work with 4
MB 9-chip SIMMs or 1 MB 3-chip SIMMS.
2. Some EL CHEAPO motherboards do not have proper terminations on the
lines which drive the DRAM array. These boards may show only marginal
compatibility with various SIMMs, not working with all prefectly good
SIMMs you try, favoring SIMMs with parameters skewed towards one end
or another of the allowed ranges. In some cases, most of the SIMMs
you happen to try might be 9-chip modules, and in other cases they
might be 3-chip modules. A random selection of a dozen SIMMs might
lead you to conclude the motherboard doesn't "work" with 3-chip
modules, or with a "mixture" of 3-chip and 9-chip modules.
You might find the real solution is to use SIMMs one speed faster
than the manual calls for, because the particular motherboard design
just cuts too many things too close.
Q) 2.16 What do wait states and burst rates in my BIOS mean?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
Modern motherboards are equipped with variable clocks and features
for tuning board performance at each speed. The BIOS knows how to
program the register bits which control these options.
1. Wait states may be adjustable to allow for slower DRAMs or
cache RAMs. If you don't have a motherboard manual, or it doesn't
say, then you will just have to experiment.
2. Sometimes a wait or two on a write is required with write-through
cache. The programming allows for slower DRAMs. The extra wait
state may cost you enough time that you would do better running at a
slower clock rate where the wait state is not required.
3. Burst rates refer to the number of wait states inserted for
each longword access in the cache fill cycle.
Bob Nichols (rnichols@ihlpm.ih.att.com) adds:
These numbers refer to the number of clock cycles for each access of a
"burst mode" memory read. The fastest a 486 can access memory is 2 clock
cycles for the first word and 1 cycle for each subsequent word, so
"2-1-1-1" corresponds to "zero wait states." Anything else is slower.
How fast you can go depends on the external clock speed of your CPU, the
access time of your cache SRAMs, and the design of the cache controller.
It can also be affected by the amount of cache equipped, since "x-1-1-1"
is generally dependent on having 2 banks of cache SRAMs so that the
accesses can be interleaved. With a 50MHz bus (486DX-50), few
motherboards can manage "2-1-1-1" no matter how fast the SRAMs are. At
33MHz or less (486DX-33, 486DX2-66), many motherboards can achieve
"2-1-1-1" if the cache SRAMs are fast enough and there are 2 banks
equipped (cache sizes of 64KB or 256KB, typically).
Q) 2.17 Cache terminology, what does it mean?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
Why cache improves performance
------------------------------
Today's microprocessors ("uPs") need a faster memory than can be made
with economical DRAMs. So we provide a fast SRAM buffer
between the DRAM and the uP. The most popular way to set it up is
by constructing a "direct mapped cache," which is the only setup
I'll describe here.
Generic motherboard cache architecture
--------------------------------------
The direct mapped cache has three big features:
1. a "data store" made with fast SRAMs,
2 a "tag store" made with even faster SRAMs, and
3. a comparator.
The data store is the chunk of RAM you see in the motherboard price
lists. It holds "blocks" or "lines" of data recently used by the CPU.
Lines are almost always 16 bytes. The address feeding the cache is
simply the least significant part of the address feeding main memory.
Each memory location can be cached in only one location in the data
store.
There are two "policies" for managing the data store. Under the
"write-back" (or "copy-back") policy, the master copy of the data is
in cache, and main memory locations may be "stale" at times. Under
"write-through", writes go immediately to main memory as well as to
cache and memory is never "stale."
The tag store mantains one "word" of information about each line of
data in the data store.
In a "write-back" or "copy-back" cache, the tag word contains two items:
1. the part of the main memory address that was *not*
fed to the data store, and
2. a "dirty" bit.
A write-through cache doesn't need a dirty bit. The tag store is
addressed with the most significant address bits that are being fed to
the data store. The tag is only concerned with the address bits that
are used to select a line. With a 16 byte line, address bits 0
through 3 are irrelevant to the tag.
An example: The motherboard has 32 MB main memory and 256 KB cache.
To specify a byte in main memory, 25 bits of address are required: A0
through A24. To specify a byte in data store, 18 bits (A0 through
A17) are required. Lines in cache are 16 bytes on 16 byte boundaries,
so only A3 through A17 are required to specify a line. The tag word
for this system would represent A18 through A24 (plus dirty bit). The
tag store in this system would be addressed by A3 through A17,
therefore the tag store would require 16 K tag words seven bits wide.
The dirty bit is written at different times than the rest of the tag,
so it might be housed separately, and this tag store might be built in
three 16K x4 SRAMs.
What happens when it runs
-------------------------
Each motherboard memory cycle begins when the uP puts out a memory
address. The data store begins fetching, and simultaneously the
tag begins fetching. When the tag word is ready, the Comparator
compares the tag word to the current address.
If they match, a cache hit is declared and the uP reads or writes
the data store location. If the hit is a write, the copy-back
cache marks the line "dirty" by setting its dirty-bit in the line's
tag word. The write-through motherboard simultaneously stores the
write data in data store and begins a DRAM write cycle. The uP
moves on.
If the tag word doesn't match, what a bummer, it's a cache miss.
If the line in cache is dirty, double bummer, the line must be
copied back to main memory before anything else can happen. All
16 bytes are copied back, even if the hit was a one-byte write.
This data transfer is called a "dirty write flush."
On a read-miss, the motherboard has to copy a line from main memory
to cache (and update the tag, the whole operation is called a "cache
fill"), and the uP can stop waiting as soon as the bytes it wants
go by. On a write-miss, the caches I've worked with ignore the
event (that's an oversimplification) and the main memory performs
a write cycle. I've heard of systems that fill on a write-miss,
that is they replace the cache line whenever it misses, read or
write, dirty or not. I've never seen such a system.
Terms
-----
The 486, the 68020, and their descendants have caches on chip.
We call the on-chip cache "primary" and the cache on the
motherboard "secondary." The 386 has no cache, therefore the cache
on a 386 motherboard is "primary." I like to call the DRAM array
"core" for brevity. Motherboard = "mb." Megabyte = "MB."
Problems
--------
I added "core" and I had to disable my secondary cache to
get the board running. Or, I added core and performance took a dive.
Disabling secondary cache improved it, but still real slow.
What happened?
Whenever you are adding memory and you cross a power-of-2
address boundary, another address bit becomes interesting to the
tag. That is, the tag does not care when you add your 8th MB
(MB) but it cares a lot about the new address bit 24 when you add
your 9th MB, or your 17th (bit 25). Evidently, at the low-price
end of the mb market there are boards with not enough tag RAM
sockets to support all the core they can hold. Most of these EL
CHEAPO mbs don't even try to use cache in the region beyond the
tag's coverage. Some of them don't have the logic to stay out or
the BIOS doesn't know to enable it. These boards just don't run
right.
Do not buy a mb if you are not sure it can cache all of core. The
worst case is with core fully stuffed with whatever the board claims
to hold, and the smallest cache configuration. Some motherboards
ask you to add cache when you add core, so that they don't have to
provide for that worst case tag width. These motherboards may ask
you to move some jumpers in the tag area. The jumpers control
which address bits the tag looks at. Do not buy a motherboard if
you don't know how to set all the jumpers.
Q) 2.18 How do I upgrade the size of my cache?
Look in your motherboard manual. Each motherboard is different.
You will have to add or replace cache RAMs and move jumpers.
Q) 2.19 Do I need to fill the "dirty tag" RAM socket on my motherboard?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
Perhaps you don't *have* to for the board to run, but the missing RAM
will cost you performance. Most "write-back" mbs cope with the
missing RAM by treating all lines as dirty. You get a lot of
unneccessary write cycles; you might even do better with
write-through.
Your bargain-basement no-documentation no-brand mb might not have the
pullup resistor on that socket, and it might run for a second, ten
minutes, or ten years with that pin not driven. I think it's a
pointless risk to leave the socket empty.
Q) 2.20 How fast do my cache RAMs have to be?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
Only the person who designed your mb knows for sure. There is
no simple formula related to clock rate. However, most people tell
me their 33 MHz mbs' manuals call for 25 ns data store and 20 ns
tag store, and their 40 and 50 MHz mbs want 20 ns data store and
15 or 12 ns tag. Tqhe tag has to be faster than data store to make
time for the comparator to work. Do not buy a motherboard if you do
not know what speed and size of cache RAMs it requires in all its
speeds and configurations.
If you're not sure, it doesn't hurt to use faster RAMs than your
manual calls for. If your manual says 20 ns for location x and you
happen to have 15 ns parts, it's ok to "mix" the speeds. It's ok to
"mix" RAMs from more than one manufacturer. However, the faster RAMs
will not buy you more performance.
Q) 2.21 Which is the best cache policy, write-through or "write-back?"
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
For most applications, copy-back gives better performance than
write-through. The amount of win will depend on your application and
may not be significant. Write-through is simpler, but not by much any
more.
Q) 2.22 What about an n-way set associative cache, isn't it better?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
At the high end of the mb market, caches are available with more than
one set. In these caches, the data store is broken into two or four
parts, or sets, with a separate tag for each. On a miss, clever
algorithms (such as Least Recently Used) can be used to pick which set
will be filled, because each set has a candidate location. The result
is a higher hit rate than a direct mapped (single set) cache the same
size can offer.
The primary cache on the 486 is four-way set associative.
Q) 2.23 *Which is better, ISA/EISA/VLB?
Q) 2.24 *What are the (dis)advantages of ISA/VLB/EISA SCSI?
Q) 2.25 *What is PCI?
(note: this section is being worked on)
Q) 2.26 Will an ISA card work in an MCA (PS/2) machine?
No, they will not. MCA, unlike EISA and VLB, is not backward
compatible with ISA.
Q) 2.27 *What does the "chip set" do?
Q) 2.28 What is bus matering and how do I know if I have it?
Bus mastering is the ability of an expansion (ISA/EISA/VLB/MCA/etc)
card to directly read and write to main memory. This allows the CPU
do delegate I/O work out to the cards, freeing it to do other things.
For all of the above busses, bus mastering capability is assumed.
Unless specifically stated otherwise, you should assume each slot has
this capability. For cards, this is not assumed. If you want a bus
mastering card, you should specifically request it and expect to pay
more. Note that some cards (RLL/MFM/IDE/com) are not available in bus
mastering versions.
Q) 2.29 Can I put an ISA cards in EISA slots?
Yes, you can put ISA cards in EISA slots, the EISA bus was
specifically designed to be 100% ISA compatible. ISA cards will not
directly effect the performance of EISA cards; a well balanced system
will have both. Note, however, that the total bandwidth of the bus
will be split between all cards, so there is a strong advantage to
using EISA cards for the high bandwidth devices (disk/video).
Q) 2.30 How should I configure ISA/VLB cards in the EISA config utility?
Only EISA cards matter in the ECU; ISA and VLB entries are only place
markers. While this is a good way to keep track of IRQ, DMA and BIOS
conflictions, ISA and VLB need not be placed in the configuration at
all, nor should it be assumed that the settings for them match the
actual card settings. If you wish to add them, you can use the
"Generic ISA Card" configuration file for either. Do not expect card
vendors to supply them.
Q) 2.31 What is the difference between EISA Standard and Enhanced modes?
Many EISA cards support both Standard (ISA) and Enhanced (EISA) modes.
In Standard mode, the card will appear to be an ISA card to the OS; it
will generate edge triggered interrupts and only accept ISA addressing
(for bus mastering cards), for instance. An important thing to note
is that the card may still do EISA specific things like 32-bit data
bus mastering and EISA configuration setup as this functionality is
hidden from the OS.
Q) 2.32 Is there any point in putting more than 16M in an ISA machine?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
Sure. Even inferior operating systems can use it for something.
The question is how much performance it buys. In ISA, the DMA
channels and bus-mastering IO cards can only address the first 16 MB.
Therefore the device drivers have to copy data up and down or just
not use the space. I am told the Linux SCSI drivers know how to
do this. I don't know about OS/2 or MSWindows.
Q) 2.33 What disadvantages are there to the HiNT EISA chip set?
[From: ralf@wpi.wpi.edu (Ralph Valentino)]
The HiNT Caesar Chip Set (CS8001 & CS8002) can come in three different
configurations. All three of these configurations have EISA style
connectors and are (sometimes incorrectly) sold as EISA motherboards.
The differences should be carefully noted, though.
The rarest of these configuration uses a combination of the first HiNT
chip (CS8001) and the Intel chip set. This configuration can support
the full EISA functionality: 32 address bits, 32 data bits, level
sensitive (sharable) interrupts, full EISA DMA, watch dog (sanity)
timer, and so forth.
The second configuration is called Super-ISA, which uses both of the
HiNT chips. This configuration is very common in low-end models. It
supports a very limited functionality: 24 address bits, 32 data bits,
edge triggered (non-sharable) interrupts, ISA (16 data, 24 address)
DMA, and no watch dog timer. Some EISA boards, such as the Adaptec
1742A EISA Fast SCSI-2 host adapter, can be configured to work in this
mode by hacking their EISA configuration file (.CFG) to turn off these
features. Other EISA cards require these features and are therefore
unusable in these systems.
The final configuration is called Pragmatic EISA, or P-EISA. Like
Super-ISA, both HiNT chips are used but external support logic
(buffers and such) are added to provide a somewhat increased
functionality: 32 address bits, 32 data bits, edge triggered
(non-sharable) interrupts, ISA (16 data, 24 address) DMA, and no watch
dog timer. The full 32 bits for address and data allow bus mastering
devices access to the complete range of main memory. As with
Super-ISA, there may be incompatibilities with some EISA cards.
Q) 2.34 *Should I change the ISA bus speed?
Q) 2.35 Where do all the IRQ's go?
[From: wlim@lehman.com (Willie Lim)]
Default settings.
IRQ DMA IO BASE Card or Device
ADDRESS
(HEX)
=== === ======== ===============
0 * * timer (reserved)
1 * * keyboard (reserved)
2 * * interrupt 8-15 (cascade)
2 * 330 MPU-401 Emulation (PAS 16)
3 * 2F8 COM2:
3 * 2F8 COM4:
3 * 300 3Com Etherlink II, II/TP, II/16, II/16TP, 16/16TP
3 * 300 Novell NE2000
3 * 300 SMC/Western Digital 8003EP, 8013EWC, 8013WB
4 * 3F8 COM1:
4 * 3F8 COM3:
5 * 278 LPT2:
5 * 368 Ungermann-Bass Ethernet NIUpc (long), NIUpc/EOTP (short)
5 * ??? DEC etherWORKS LC, Turbo, Turbo/TP
5 1 220 Sound Blaster Emulation (PAS 16)
5 5 A20 Proteon P1390
6 * * floppy disk controller
7 * 378 LPT1: (PRN:)
7 3 * Pro Audio Spectrum 16 (PAS 16)
8 * * clock (reserved)
9 * * reserved
9 5 300 Boca Ethernet (BEN100, BEN102, BEN300)
10 * * unassigned
11 * * unassigned
12 * * unassigned
13 * * math co-processor
14 * * hard-disk
15 * * secondary disk controller
S) 3.0 IO controllers/interfaces
Q) 3.1 *How do IDE/MFM/RLL/ESDI/SCSI interfaces work?
Q) 3.2 *How can I tell if I have MFM/RLL/ESDI/IDE/SCSI?
Q) 3.3 *Do caching controllers really help?
Q) 3.4 Do IDE controllers use DMA?
No, they do not. This is a rumor that keeps popping up. This may
change on the next revision of the standard.
Q) 3.5 *How do I get an MFM/RLL/ESDI & IDE drive to coexist with each other?
Q) 3.6 *Why won't my two IDE drives work together?
Q) 3.7 *Which is better, VLB or ISA IDE?
Q) 3.8 How I install a second controller?
[From: strople@ug.cs.dal.ca (PAUL LESLIE STROPLE)]
The following should solve about 95% (9.5?) of second controller
problems, if only to tell you it can't be done!
Generic Second Controller Installation:
1) Normally the MFM/IDE/RLL controller is set up as the primary, and
the ESDI/SCSI as the secondary; One reason for this is because the
ESDI/SCSI controller cards are usually more flexible in their set up
and secondly this method seems to work (probably due to reason one).
2) Your primary controller is set up using all the normal defaults:
- Floppy at primary address(3F0-3F7).
- Hard disk enabled, at primary addresses (1F0-1F7),
BIOS address C800 and interrupt 14.
3) Your secondary controller is set up as:
- Floppy drives disabled
- Hard disk controller enabled, secondary address(170- 177) and
interrupt 15.
- NOTE: onboard bios set to D400, or D800 can be used, if there is a
conflict.
4) Computer BIOS Setup:
- Any drive(s) on the primary controller (MFM/IDE), should be
entered in the BIOS setup as usual.
- You DO NOT enter the drive types for the hard disks on the
secondary controller, even if there are only two drives in the entire
system i.e., if one drive on each controller you only enter the drive
type of the hard disk on the primary controller -- the 2nd drive type
is left as not installed (0).
Operating System:
If you do the above steps you now have the hardware setup correctly;
your only other problem may be with the operating system.
Different OSs handle secondary controllers differently; as well,
different controllers handles same OSs differently (scared yet?).
For example: with DOS you may require a device driver (available from
the manufacture or through third party companies, such as Ontrack
Computer Systems -- more on Ontrack later). Some flavors of UNIX
handle a mixture of controllers better than others (e.g., IA 5.4 had
probs mixing ESDI and SCSI controllers under certain conditions).
Procedure:
You should verify that your secondary controller, and associated hard
drives, are working properly (you can try this by installing it as the
primary system -- removing existing system first!). Follow above
steps 1 to 4, pray, and turn on system! If it still won't work you may
need additional drivers. First check with the supplier or manufacture
(I know, for example, a DTC ESDI controller comes with the DOS drivers
included, and it works perfectly).
I am not sure of operating systems supported by Ontrack Data Systems.
I know that their DOS driver can assist secondary controllers, even
allowing two IDEs to co-exist. Likewise, the drivers can also install
virtually any drive, regardless of what is supported by the BIOS.
BIG NOTE: The features required in a secondary controller a normally
not found on a $30.00 IDE controller. The best thing to do it, if
possible, is to get a guarantee from the supplier/manufacture that if
it doesn't work (and they can't make it) then they will take it back.
Ontrack supplies a complete range of hard disk products and services
-- from driver software, data recovery services, to media and data
conversions (including tape backups). The product I know them from is
DiskManager.
Disk Manager is a utility for hard disk management. It will allow you
to setup and install virtually any hard disk, regardless of disk's
layout and BIOS options available. Disk Manager (version greater than
5.2.X, or there abouts) includes a driver for co-resident controllers.
For driver to work the co-res board must be able to hit the above
addresses and must be WD1003 AT command set compatible (this includes
most IDE and ESDI boards).
DM contains a number of features, including full diagnostics. You may
not need to know the disk's geometry, as there are numerous layouts
stored internally. All you need to do is select the correct model and
DM does the rest.
To contact Ontrack: U.S. (800)-872-2599; UK 0800-24 39 96 this is
either an address or phone number! outside U.K. (but NOT U.S.)
44-81-974 5522
Q) 3.9 Which is better, SCSI or IDE?
[From: ralf@wpi.wpi.edu (Ralph Valentino)]
IDE vs SCSI
Non-issues:
1) SCSI and IDE devices cost approximately the same for the same
features (size, speed, access time). Shop around for good prices.
Advantages of IDE:
1) faster response time (low request overhead)
2) hard drive interface is compatible with RLL/MFM/ESDI: any driver
for one (including the main system BIOS) will run the other.
3) IDE controllers are considerably cheaper ($150 and up) than SCSI
host adapters.
4) Will always be the boot device when mixed with SCSI.
Advantages of SCSI:
1) Supports up to 7 devices per host adapter. This saves slots,
IRQ's, DMA channels and, as you add deviceds, money.
2) Supports different types of devices simultaneously the same host
adapter (hard drives, tape drives, CDROMs, scanners, etc).
3) SCSI devices will work in other systems as well (Mac, Sparc, and
countless other workstations and mainframes). If you change platforms
in the future, you will still be able to use your SCSI devices.
4) Automatically configures device type, geometry (size), speed and
even manufacturer/model number(SCSI-2). No need to look up CMOS
settings.
5) Busmastering DMA (available in all but a few cheap SCSI host
adapters) decreases amount of CPU time required to do I/O, leaving
more time to work on other tasks (in multitasking OS's only).
6) Software portability - drivers are written for the host adapter,
not the specific device. That is, if you have a CDROM driver for your
host adapter, you can purchase any brand or speed SCSI CDROM drive and
it will work in your system.
7) Will coexist with any other type of controller (IDE/RLL/MFM/ESDI)
or host adapter (other SCSI cards) without any special tricks. SCSI
host adapters do not take up one of the two available hard drive
controller port addresses.
8) greater bandwidth utilization (higher throughput) with multiple
devices. Supports pending requests, which allows the system to
overlap requests to multiple devices so that one device can be seeking
while the second is returning data.
9) Ability to "share" devices between machines by connecting them to
the same SCSI bus. (note: this is considerably more difficult to do
than it sounds).
10) Bridges are available to hook RLL and ESDI drives to your SCSI host
adapter. (note: these tend to be prohibitively expensive, though).
Warnings:
1) With otherwise equal drives, IDE will perform better in DOS due to
low command overhead. SCSI, however, will perform better in
multitasking OS's (OS/2, Unix, NT, etc). If you see speed comparisons
(benchmarks), make sure you know what OS they were run under.
2) Most benchmarks only test one aspect of your system at a time, not
the effect various aspects have on each other. For instance, an IDE
drive may get faster throughput but hurt CPU performance during the
transfer, so your system may actually run slower. Similar confusions
arise when comparing VLB and EISA host adapters.
3) When comparing two systems, keep in mind that CPU, memory, cache,
and bus speed/type will all effect disk performance. If someone gets
great I/O performance with a particular controller/drive combination
on his Pentium, you should not expect your 386SX-25 to get such I/O
performance even with the exact same controller/drive combination.
4) Similarly sized or even priced drives may not perform equally, even
if they're made by the same manufacturer. If you're going to compare
two drives, make sure they have the exact same model number. (IDE
drives usually have an 'A' and SCSI drives usually have an 'S'
appended to their model number).
===============
Ralph Valentino (ralf@chpc.org) (ralf@wpi.wpi.edu)
Hardware Engineer, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Center for High Performance Computing, Marlborough MA
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From: ralf@chpc.org (Ralph Valentino)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.comm,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.* Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Part 2/4
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc
Date: 18 Jan 1994 16:35:11 GMT
Organization: Center For High Performance Computing
Lines: 1669
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Expires: 11 Feb 1994 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <2hh33v$onc@bigboote.WPI.EDU>
Reply-To: ralf@wpi.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: wpi.wpi.edu
Summary: This is a monthly posting containing a list of Frequently
Asked Questions (and their answers) pertaining to hardware
and IBM PC clones. It should be read by anyone who wishes
to post to any group in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.*
hierarchy.
Originator: ralf@wpi.WPI.EDU
Archive-name: pc-hardware-faq/part2
Last-modified: 1994/01/10
Version: 1.0
Q) 3.10 Can MFM/RLL/ESDI/IDE and SCSI coexist?
The PC is limited to two drive controllers total. SCSI, however, is a
"host adapter" and not a drive controller. To the rest of your
system, it appears more like an ethernet card than a drive controller.
For this reason, SCSI will always be able to coexist with any type
dive controller. The main drawback here is that on most systems, you
must boot off a disk on the primary drive controller, if you have one.
That means if you have SCSI and IDE in your system, for example, you
can not directly boot from the SCSI drive. There are various ways to
get around this limitation, including the use of a boot manager.
Q) 3.11 What's the difference between SCSI and SCSI-2? Are they compatible?
The main difference between SCSI and SCSI-2 are some new minor
features that the average person will never notice. Both run at a
maximum 5M/s. (note: Fast and Wide SCSI-2 will potentially run at
faster rates). All versions of SCSI will work together. On power up,
the SCSI host adapter and each device (separately) determine the best
command set the speed that each is capable of. For more information
on this, refer to the comp.periphs.scsi FAQ.
Q) 3.12 Can I share SCSI devices between computers?
There are two ways to share SCSI devices. The first is removing the
device from one SCSI host adapter and placing it on a second. This
will always work if the power is off and will usually work with the
power on, but for it to be guaranteed to work with the power on, your
host adapter must be able to support "hot swaps" - the ability to
recover from any errors the removal/addition might cause on the SCSI
bus. This ability is most common in RAID systems.
The second way to share SCSI devices is by connecting two SCSI busses
together. This is theoretically possible, but difficult in practice,
especially when disk drives are on the same SCSI chain. There are a
number of resource reservation issues which must be resolved in the
OS, including disk caching. Don't expect it to 'just work'.
Q) 3.13 How do I swap A: and B:
[From: rgeens@wins.uia.ac.be (Ronald Geens)]
To swap A: and B: drives :
1) open up your machine to see if look at the cable that interconnects
the 2 drives.
2) if the cable is twisted, there is no problem, just switch the
connectors from 1 drive to the other.And change the bios-setup.
3) if the cable isn't twisted (which is very,very rare), it's a little
harder: leave the cables as they are, but change the jumpers on the
drive. (this sounds a lot tougher, but it can usually be done without
to much hassle. When the cable connecting the 2 drives is just a flat
one (like the harddisk cable) then you must play with the jumpers on
the drives: Most of the time, there is a jumper with 4 pins, with the
following layout:
_
|1|
|2*3|
---
Where the * is the 4th unnumbered pin. Normally the A: drive will have a
jumper on pin 2 & 4 and the B: drive on 1 & 4. Just change these jumpers
around, (i.e. new A: 2&4, new B: 1&4) and change the BIOS configuration.
4) Don't panic if it doesn't work, just make sure all cables are
conected properly and if that doesn't work just restore everything to
its old state.
PS. By twisted cable, I mean that between the A: and B: drive, a few
wires of the flat cable are turned around.
[From: sward+@1.EDU (David Reeve Sward)]
I have found two ways to do this: I originally switched their
positions on the cable attached to the controller, and changed the
BIOS to reflect this. I recently got a gsi model 21 controller for my
IDE drive, and this controller allows you to specify which drive is A:
and B: in software (it lights the LEDs in turn and asks which is A:
and which is B:). This did not require a cable change (but I still
changed by BIOS).
Q) 3.14 What is a 16550 and do I need one?
The 16550 is a UART with a 16 byte FIFO. A UART is the part of a
serial port that takes byte-wide (characters) data and converts it to
bit-wide (serial) data, and visa versa. The FIFO is a buffer which
can hold characters until the CPU is ready to remove it. The 'normal'
UART in the PC (the 8250 or 16450) only has a 1-byte FIFO. The
additional 15 bytes can be useful when the CPU is busy doing other
things - if the CPU isn't able to remove data fast enough, it will be
lost.
A very important thing to note is that under DOS, the CPU doesn't have
anything else to do, so the 16550 is wasted. Only under multitasking
operating systems does it really become useful. The 16550 will *not*
make your file transfers any faster, it will only prevent data from
being lost and relieve your CPU of some overhead. If you notice
system performance dropping like a rock when file transfers are
occurring, a 16550 may be helpful. If you see re-transmissions (bad
packets) or "FIFO overrun's" during file transfers under a
multitasking OS, try the same thing under DOS - if the errors go away,
then chances are a 16550 will be useful. If they remain, then your
problem is likely to be elsewhere.
Q) 3.15 *Are there any >4 serial port cards?
Q) 3.16 Should I buy an internal or external modem?
[From: arnoud@ijssel.hacktick.nl (Arnoud Martens)]
While low speed modems are often only produced as an internal PC card,
most modem manufacturers provide two versions of their higher speed
modems:
1: internal ISA bus card, specially designed to work with the
standard PC bus. You just plug it in and configure it to use on
port.
2: external modem that has to be connected to the serial ports of
your PC (com 1-4), using a serial RS232 cable.
In most cases the functionality of these two is equal. There are
however some differences in using, maintaining and buying these
modems. It is very difficult to give an definite answer as to which one
is better, it completely depends on your own situation. Some of the
points that are in favor of an external modem are:
* It has lights showing the status of the connection, this can be
useful in those (rare) cases that you have problems with the
connection.
* It can be used on a wide range of systems. External modems
are connected using a RS232 cable, a standard that most computer
systems support. So you can as easily use your external modem
on a Mac, Amiga or Unix box as on your PC.
* It doesn't consume power inside the PC (it uses a normal net
adapter), and doesn't produce any heat inside your PC.
On the other hand the internal modem has also a couple of advantages
compared to an external modem:
* It is always cheaper, Somewhere in the order of 10% less compared
to the same external modem.
* It doesn't need special serial hardware since it has already
been integrated on the board, which will make it even more
cheaper.
So basically if portability of your modem is an issue, you are better
of with an external modem. But if you only intend to use the modem
with your PC and don't have any power problems, an internal modem is
the best choice.
Q) 3.17 What do all of the modem terms mean?
[From: arnoud@ijssel.hacktick.nl (Arnoud Martens)]
A modem (MOdulator-DEModulator) is a device capable of converting digital
data from your computer into an analog signal that is suitable for
transmission over low band width telephone lines. A modem thus makes it
possible to connect two computers over a telephone line and exchange data
between them.
Basically a modem picks up the phone, and dails a number. A modem on
the other side will pick up the phone and the two modems will
negotiate which protocol to use. When they agree the actual
transmission of data can begin.
The major feature of a modem is the speed that it can achieve
connecting to other modems. This speed is often expressed in baud or
bits per second. The first is a feature of the line and specifies how
much of the bandwidth of the phone channel is used and is fixed to
2400 baud. A baud is defined as the number of lines changes per
second. Bits per second is the actual amount of data transmitted in
one second. Most modems are capable of sending more than one bit per
line transition by using very intelligent signal modulation
techniques. So the bps can be eight times higher compared to trhe baud
rate.
The modulation techniques that a modem uses are standarized by the
ITU-T ( former CCITT), so that modems of different brands can connect
to each other as they use the same modulation schemes. These standards
are often incorporated in a protocol definition that is referred to by
the letter V followed by a number. The most common protocols are:
V21: (300 baud)
V22bis: (2400 baud)
V32: (9600 baud)
V32bis: (14400 baud)
A modem is often advertised only by its fastest protocol, most of these
modems "speak" slower protocols as well.
There are also standards on using data compression by the modem, such as MNP5
and V42bis, and error control protocols (V42 and MNP4). These standards can
reduce the transmitted data by a factor four, by using advanced compression
techniques.
To give you an idea a how fast fast is in modem technology: V32bis transmits
somewhat like 1600 characters per second (that is ~33% of 1 page of
text). Transferring a file of 1Mb takes about 12 minutes. Using V42bis can
speed up transmission to 4000 characters per second for uncompressed data.
Apart from these standardized protocols there are also faster protocols which
are supported by some modem manufacturers. But remember anything faster than
14k4 is *not yet* standarized, and often different manufacturers use their
own modulation scheme that allows only their own modems communicate at that
speed. The most common high speed protocols are:
V32 terbo (19200 baud)
V34 (28800 baud) or Vfast.
The standard for V34 is being worked on, it will be released somewhere in
1994. Some modem manufacturers already sell modems with the (prelimenary) V34
standard. If you are serious about buying a fast modem, upgradability to this
standard should be provided by the manufacturer.
When you use your modem it is important to differentiate between command
status and connect status of your modem. When you are connected to an another
modem everything you send to the modem, will be transmitted to the other
modem. In command mode everything you type will be recieved and interpreted
by the modem. Command mode allows you to change the default settings for
youyr modem.
In command mode it is likely that your modem will respond to the Hayes AT
command set. "AT commands" all have prefix AT, and can be used to change the
(default) settings of your modem. To check if your modem works, fire up a
terminal program (such as kermit), connect to your modem (in kermit c
[ENTER]) and issue AT [ENTER], if your modem works it should respond with
OK. For a list of all "AT commands" see the manual of your modem, as most AT
commands are modem specific.
If you buy a fax-modem, you should pay attention to a couple of things. First
the modem must support Class 2 fax commands, furthermore automatic fax mode
selection is a big pro. That means if you receive a call the modem is capable
of detecting a fax message or a modem connection and act properly (start up a
fax receiving program or spawn something like a login process on the
connection).
Finally there is no best modem to get, brands and qualities change very fast,
as do the prices. If you are interested in buying one, subscribe to the
newsgroup comp.dcom.modems, most postings in this group are very brand
oriented and you will recognize fast enough which users are satisfied over
their modems and which are not.
Q) 3.18 *What kinds of sound cards are avalable?
Q) 3.19 Where can I find EISA sound and IO cards?
Chances are that you won't be able to find them anywhere, and if you
do, they won't be worth the money. Sound and IO cards have very low
bandwidth requirements, over 10 times lower than the ISA bandwidth and
over 60 times lower than the EISA bandwidth. For this reason, there
is no advantage in placing them on the more expensive EISA cards when
the less expensive ISA will more than suffice, especially considering
than all ISA cards will work in an EISA bus.
Q) 3.20 *How does the keyboard interface work?
[this section being worked on]
Q) 3.21 *Can I fake a keyboard so my computer will boot without it?
[this section being worked on]
S) 4.0 Storage/Retrieval Devices
Q) 4.1 What is the CMOS/jumper setting for my hard drive?
[From: Carsten Grammes (cagr@rz.uni-sb.de)]
Configuration of IDE Harddisks
==============================
last update: 6. Jan. 1993
collected by Carsten Grammes (cagr@rz.uni-sb.de)
and published on comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware as part of the FAQ.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is explicitly NO WARRANTY that the given settings are correct or
harmless. (I only collect, I do not check for myself!!!). There is
always the possibility that the settings may destroy your hardware!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Since I hope however that only well-minded people undergo the effort of
posting their settings the chance of applicability exists. If you should
agree or disagree with some setting, let me know immediately in order
to update the list.
If you possess a HD not mentioned here of which you know BIOS and/or
jumper settings, please mail them to me for the next update of the list!
Only IDE (AT-Bus) Harddisks will be accounted for. If not specified the
Landing Zone should be set equal to the number of cylinders. If not
specified the 'Write Precompensation' should be set 65535. (There are
BIOSes that don't even ask for it). On most IDE disks these values are
dummies, relicts from old MFM times.
The capacity given here is sometimes in Megabytes (1000000 bytes) and
sometimes in MB (1048576 bytes). Don't worry! The only right way to calculate
the capacity is
cyl * heads * sec/tr * 512
which gives the capacity in bytes! Dividing by 1000000 or 1048576 gives
the capacity in Megabytes or MB respectively.
If you get problems when installing 2 HD's with correct BIOS and jumper
settings, try to swap drive 1 and 2, often that helps.
Please don't flame me because of the 'layout' of the list. Since the
available information is so strongly varying I often only pack _YOUR_
mail to me into the list. If someone feels encouraged to improve this,
I would be glad to receive a 'lifted' version. But there should be all
info contained!
Since the list is rather long, I give here a summary of all drives
described therein.
************* ALPS Alps alps
DR311C
************* CDC Cdc cdc
BJ7D5A 94155-48 94335-100 94166-141 94171-300 736 SABRE
BJ7D5A 94295-51 94355-55 94166-182 94171-344 850 SABRE
BJ7D5A 94155-57 94355-100 94186-383 94181-574 1230 SABRE
94155-21 94155-67 94155-135 94186-383H 94208-51
94155-25 94155-77 94205-77 94186-442 94211-91
94155-28 94155-85 94355-150 94216-106 94221-190
94155-36 94155-86 94335-150 94356-200 94351-172
94155-38 94205-51 94156-48 94161-86 368 SABRE
94335-55 94156-67 94166-101 94161-121 500 SABRE
************* CONNER Conner conner
CP342 CP2034 CP2084 CP3044 CP3104 CP3204 CP30084
CP344 CP2044 CP3000 CP2124 CP3111 CP3204F CP30104
CP2024 CP2064 CP3024 CP3184 CP3114 CP30064 CP30084E
CP30174E CP30174E CP3304 CP3544
CP30204 CP30204 CP3364 CP3554
CP30254 CP30254 CP3504 CP30101
************* FUJITSU Fujitsu fujitsu
M2611T M2612ET M2613ET M2614ET M2618T M2622T M2623T M2624T
************* HEWLETT PACKARD Hewlett Packard hewlett packard HP Hp hp
C2233
************* IBM Ibm ibm
WDA-L160 WDA-L42 IBM 85 MB IDE (number not known)
************* JVC Jvc jvc
JD-E2085M
************* KALOK Kalok kalok
KL3100 KL3120
************* MAXTOR Maxtor maxtor
LXT-200A 2585A 7120A
LXT-213A 7040A 7131AT
LXT-340A 7060A 7213A
LXT437A 7080A 7245A
LXT535A
************* MICROPOLIS Micropolis micropolis
2105A 2112A
************* MICROSCIENCE Microscience microscience
7100-00 8040-00 7070-20 7100-00 7100-20 8040
************* MINISCRIBE Miniscribe miniscribe
8225AT 8051AT 8450AT
************* NEC Nec nec
D3735 D3755 D3756 D3741
************* QUANTUM Quantum quantum
40AT LPS52AT ELS42AT
80AT LPS80AT ELS85AT
120AT LPS105AT ELS127AT
170AT LPS120AT ELS170AT
210AT LPS170AT LPS540A
425AT LPS240AT
************* RODIME Rodime rodime
RO3058A RO3088A RO3095A RO3128A RO3135A RO3059A RO3089A
RO3129A RO3139A RO3209A RO3259A
************* SAMSUNG Samsung samsung
SHD-3101A SHD-3061A SHD-3062A
************* SEAGATE Seagate seagate
ST1057a ST1144a ST138a ST274a ST3283a
ST1090a ST1156a ST1400a ST280a ST351ax
ST1102a ST1162a ST1401a ST3051a ST9051a
ST1111a ST1186a ST1480a ST3096a ST9077a
ST1126a ST1201a ST157a ST3120a ST9096a
ST1133a ST1239a ST2274a ST3144a ST9144a
ST3243A ST125a ST2383a ST325ax
ST351AX
ST9235A (maybe others)
************* TEAC Teac teac
SD-3105
************* TOSHIBA Toshiba toshiba
MK1122FC MK2024FC MK2124FC MK2224FC MK234FCH MK234FCF
************* WESTERN DIGITAL Western Digital western digital
WDAC140 WDAC280 WDAC1170 WDAC2120 WDAC2170 WDAC2200 WDAC2250
WDAC2340 WDAC2420 WD93044-A WDAH260 WDAH280 WDAP4200
And here it comes...
************* ALPS Alps alps *************
Manufacturer: ALPS ELECTRIC Co.
BIOS settings:
Model Heads Cylinders Sectors L-Zone Size
DR311C 14 868 17 868 105 MB
(Real geometry of drive:
2108 cyl. 2 heads 49 sectors/track
32k internal cache)
Jumpers:
C/D
-ACT
-DSP
-HSP
MS3
SYNC
DC
MS0
MS1
MS2
Master drive & no slaves present: jumpers on C/D and -ACT.
No other jumpers installed, function unknown.
*************************** C D C ***********************************
I have the feeling that not all of these are IDE...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MODEL ST-506 CAP CYL H RWC WPC ENC RATE ACCESS SPT COMMENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJ7D5A 77731614 5.25FH 23 670 4 375 375 M 5 17
BJ7D5A 77731608 5.25FH 29 670 5 375 375 M 5 17
BJ7D5A 77731613 733 5 - - 5 17
94155-21 WREN-1 5.25FH 21 697 3 698 698 M 5 28 MS 17
94155-25 24 697 4 698 128 M 5 17
94155-28 24 697 4 698 128 M 5 17
94155-36 WREN-1 5.25FH 36 697 5 698 698 M 5 28 MS 17
94155-38 31 733 5 734 128 M 5 17
94155-48 WREN-2 5.25FH 40 925 5 926 926 M 5 28 MS 17
94295-51 WREN-2 5.25FH 43 989 5 990 990 M 5 28 MS 17
94155-57 WREN-2 5.25FH 48 925 6 926 926 M 5 28 MS 17
94155-67 WREN-2 5.25FH 56 925 7 926 926 M 5 28 MS 17
94155-77 WREN-2 64 925 8 926 926 M 5 17
94155-85 WREN-2 5.25FH 71 1024 8 - - M 5 28 MS 17
94155-86 WREN-2 5.25FH 72 925 9 926 926 M 5 28 MS 17
94205-51 5.25HH 43 989 5 990 128 M 5 32 MS 17
94335-55 3.5" 46 - 5 - - M 5 25 MS 17
94335-100 3.5" 83 - 9 - - M 5 25 MS 17
94355-55 SWIFT-2 3.5" 46 - 5 - - M 5 16.5 MS 17
94355-100 3.5" 83 - 9 - - M 5 16.5 MS 17
ST-506 RLL
94155-135 WREN-2 5.25HH 115 960 9 - - R 7.5 28 MS 26
94205-77 WREN-2 5.25HH 63 989 5 - - R 7.5 28 MS 26
94355-150 3.5" 128 - 9 - - R 7.5 16.5 MS 26
94335-150 3.5" 128 - 9 - - R 7.5 25 MS 26
ESDI
94156-48 WREN-2 40 925 5 926 926 N 5 28 MS
94156-67 WREN-2 56 925 7 926 926 N 5
94156-86 WREN-2 72 925 9 926 926 N 5
94166-101 WREN-3 5.25FH 86 969 5 970 970 N 10 16.5 MS
94166-141 WREN-3 5.25FH 121 969 7 970 970 N 10 16.5 MS
94166-182 WREN-3 5.25FH 155 969 9 970 970 N 10 16.5 MS
94186-383 WREN V 5.25FH 383 1412 13 - - R/N 10 8.3 MS
94186-383H WREN V 5.25FH 383 1224 15 - - R/N 10 14.5 MS
94186-442 WREN V 5.25FH 442 1412 15 - - R/N 10 16 MS
94216-106 WREN-3 5.25FH 91 969 - - - N 10 16.5 MS
94356-200 SWIFT 3 3.5" 172 - 9 - - R/N 10 16.5 MS
WREN III 5.25HH 106 969 5 - - R/N 10 18 MS
SCSI
94161-86 WREN-3 5.25FH 86 969 - - - 16.5 MS
94161-121 WREN-3 5.25FH 121 969 - - - 16.5 MS
94171-300 WREN-4 5.25FH 300 1365 9 - - R 16.5 MS
94171-344 WREN V 5.25FH 344 1549 9 - - Z 9-15 17.5 MS
94181-574 WREN V 5.25FH 574 1549 15 - - Z 9-15 16 MS
94208-51
94211-91 WREN-3 5.25FH 91 969 - - - 16.5 MS
94221-190 WREN V 5.25HH 190 1547 5 - - R 10-15 8.3 MS
94351-172 SWIFT 4 3.5" 172 - 9 - - 10 16.5MS
WREN III 5.25HH 106 969 5 - - R/N 10 18 MS
SMD
368 SABRE 8" 368 - 10 - - 1.8 18 MS
500 SABRE 8" 500 - 10 - - 2.4 18 MS
736 SABRE 8" 741 - 15 - - 1.8 16 MS
850 SABRE 8" 851 - 15 - - 2.4 16 MS
1230 SABRE 8" 1236 1635 15 - - 2.4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAP = CAPACITY IN FORMATTED MEGABYTES
CYL = MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CYLINDER
H = NUMBER OF DATA HEADS
RWC = START REDUCED WRITE CURRENT
WPC = START WRITE PRECOMP
ENC = ENCODING METHOD R=RLL, M=MFM,Z=ZBR
RATE = TRANSFER RATE IN MEGABITS/SEC
ACCESS= AVERAGE ACCESS TIME
SPT = SECTORS/TRACK X 512 bytes
FH = FULL HIGH FORM FACTOR
HH = HALF HIGH FORM FACTOR
R = RLL (run length limited)
N = NRZ (non return to zero)
M = MFM (modified frequency modulation)
SA = STAND ALONE
Z = ZBR
Jumpers are not know (yet).
************************** CONNER Conner conner **************************
Conner drives are low level formatted at the factory. It is only necessary to r
un SETUP, FDISK and DOS FORMAT.
Model Hds Cyls Sec Pcomp L-Zone Type Table LED
CP342 4 805 26 0 805 17 n/a A
CP344 4 805 26 0 805 17 1 A
CP2024 2 653 32 0 653 2 3 n/a
CP2034 2 823 38 0 823 *UT 3 n/a
CP2044 4 552 38 0 552 17 3 n/a
CP2064 4 823 38 0 823 *UT 3 n/a
CP2084 8 548 38 0 548 *UT 3 n/a
CP3000 2 1047 40 0 1047 17 1 A
CP3024 2 636 33 0 636 2 1 A
CP3044 1 1047 40 0 1047 17 1 A
5 980 17 (also reported)
CP2124 8 560 53 0 560 *UT 3 n/a
CP3184 6 832 33 0 832 *UT 1 A
CP3104 8 776 33 0 776 *UT 1 A
CP3111 8 833 33 0 833 *UT 1 A(?)
CP3114 8 832 33 0 832 *UT 1 A
CP3204 16 683 38 0 683 *UT 2 B
CP3204F 16 683 38 0 683 *UT 3 B
CP30064 4 762 39 0 762 *UT 2 B
CP30084 8 526 39 0 526 *UT 2 B
CP30104 8 762 39 0 762 *UT 2 B
CP30084E 4 903 46 0 903 *UT 4 C
CP30174E 8 903 46 0 903 *UT 4 C
CP30204 16 683 38 0 683 *UT 4 C
CP30254 see below
CP3304 16 659 63 0 659 *UT 4 D
CP3364 16 702 63 0 702 *UT 4 C
CP3504 16 987 63 0 987 *UT 4 D
CP3544 16 1024 63 0 1024 *UT 4 C
CP3554 16 1054 63 0 1054 *UT 3 B
Table 1 jumper settings:
Single drive = Jumper ACT and C/D
Master drive = Jumper ACT, C/D and DSP.
Slave drive = No jumpers installed.
Table 2 jumper settings:
Single drive = Jumper E2
Master drive = Jumper E1 & E2
Slave drive = No jumpers installed.
Table 3 jumper settings:
Single Drive = Jumper C/D
Master Drive = Jumper C/D and DSP
Slave Drive = No jumpers installed
Table 4 jumper settings:
Single and Master drive = Jumper C/D
Slave drive = no jumper
ALL CONNER 20 MBYTE DRIVES USE DRIVE TYPE 2. ALL CONNER 40 MBYTE DRIVES USE DRI
VE TYPE 17. *
UT = Universal translate. Select a drive type that is close to, but does not ex
ceed the megabyte capacity of the drive. The drive will translate to the megaby
te capacity you have selected.
LED
A: J-4 B: J-1 C: J-5 D: J-3
Pin 1 = + Pin 3 = + Pin 3 = + Pin 3 = +
Pin 2 = - Pin 4 = - Pin 4 = - Pin 4 = -
Conner drives are low level formatted at the factory. It is only necessary
to run SETUP, FDISK, and DOS FORMAT.
Comment concerning CP3000 jumpers:
According to your list, all Conners should be 2 or 3 jumpers only.
That's why I'm puzzled with the 4-jumper Conner CP-3000.
In addition to the common jumpers present in
Conner - C/D, DSP & ACT, there is an extra one: HSP
By trial and error, HSP seems to follow DSP setting.
> When I installed a Conner CP3204F (203 MB) as master and a WD Caviar 2200
> (203 MB) as slave, both with and without the "CP" jumper, the Caviar had
> seemingly normal behaviour. However, when doing writes to the Caviar, once
> in a while it would overwrite directories etc. Using FASTBACK was almost
> impossible.
>
> The workaround is to install the Caviar as the master, and the Conner
> as the slave.
and:
information: I am slaving a Conner CP3000 40Meg to a Western Digital
Caviar 2200 212 Meg.
the results: I first found out that pin 1 on the CP3000 was LABELED
INCORRECTLY on the PC board....had to flip the IDE cable (which made the
cable install much more cleanly- no flips....shoulda been my first clue
that something was not correct, oh well)
next: I had to DOS-format the CP3000 ALONE on the PC system before it
wanted to work with the WD caviar.... weird
also: the WD Caviar is partitioned: C:\ was the first 100 Meg and D:\ was
the second 100 Meg. After the CMOS was correctly configured and the
drives brought online, the PC AUTOMATICALLY assigned the drives as thus:
C:\ first 100 Meg partition on the WD
D:\ 40 Meg Conner
E:\ second 100 Meg partition on the WD
even FDISK reports the above.
Conner CP 30254
Capacity: 250 MB
Dimensions: 3,5 inch, lowprofile (1 inch)
IDE interface
Cylinders Heads Sectors
Physical specs.: 1985 4 62
Logical specs.: 895 10 55
seek time 12 ms
Rotation speed 4542 rpm
jumpers C/D
1 drive master Y
2 drive master Y
2 drive slave N/Y
----
Subject: Re: Conner CP 30254
I tried several combination and even called Conner for info on
configuring two Conner drives as master (301??, a 300+ M Connder
drive) and slave (30254). The jumpers that worked are:
Pins Jumpers
Master 1-2 Y (factory setting)
3-4 Y (factory setting)
Slave 1-2 N
3-4 Y (factory setting)
So the C/D should mape to Y/N instead of N/Y in the table.
--
Some notes made whilst configuring a pair of Conner IDE drives
for Master/Slave operation from Hyundai Super-LT6 Laptop 386sx-20.
Final Working Configuration
Drive 1: CP3000 40 Mb Type 17
977 cyl 5 hds 17 sec/trk Pre 300 LZ 977
Verified configuration as per Grammes' list. HSP does need to
follow DSP (empirically) - failure to do so produced behaviour
such as LCD screen display scrambling on ROM boot.
Single, Master and Slave configurations all checked out.
Drive 2: CFA170A 170 Mb Unknown type
332 cyl 16 hds 63 sec/trk Pre --- LZ ---
Did not appear on Grammes' list. Successful configuration resulted
close to that shown as Table 3 for Conner drives, as follows:
Single 2 links (not C)/D and (not A)/(?)
Master 1 link (not C)/D
Slave 0 links
One link is listed here as (not A)/(?) due to a hole being drilled
through the (?) part of the silk screening ...
The drives worked together as either slave or master ...
--
Connor CP30101
760 cyl, 8 hds, Precomp -1, Landing 760, Sec/Track 39, ECC 7 Capacity 121.41M
************************ FUJITSU Fujitsu fujitsu ***************************
DETAILS OF FUJITSU DRIVES M261xT (Standard)
M2614ET M2613ET M2612ET M2611T
Heads (physical) 8 6 4 2
Cyl (physical) 1334 1334 1334 1334
Sec/trk 33 33 33 33
Speed (rpm) 3490 3490 3490 3490
Capacity 180MB 135MB 90MB 45MB
+-----------------------------------------------+
| |
+--+ |
PSU | | CNH-2 |
+--+ 1 |
1 | | . LED |
| | CNH-1 9 CNH-3 Connector |
| | 1 6..1 o o |
40-way | | . | | |
IDE | | . |
| | . |
| | 12 |
+--+ |
+-----------------------------------------------+
Pin Function
Position
* 1- 2 Active mode
2- 3 Slave present mode
4- 5 Pin 27=IOCHRDY
CNH-1 JUMPERS * 5- 6 Pin 27=RESERVED
7- 8 2 drive system
* 8- 9 1 drive system
10-11 Pin 29=IRQ14 : Pin 31=RESERVED
* 11-12 Pin 31=IRQ14 : Pin 29=RESERVED
Pin Function
Position
1- 2 SLAVE drive mode
CNH-2 JUMPERS * 4- 5 MASTER drive mode
7- 8 ECC 4 bytes
* 8- 9 ECC 7 bytes
Pin Function
Position
1- 2 Write protect enabled
CNH-3 JUMPERS * 2- 3 Write protect disabled
4- 5 -6 Reserved
Key: * (I guess!) marks factory default setting for jumper
BIOS SETTINGS
BIOS setting for the M2614ET in my system is 667 cylinders, 33 sectors
and 16 heads.
> I was trying to set my IDE drive in the subject above to a slave drive for
> A Conner 170MB drive and contacting the support company gave me this answer (which works). The factory default on SW2 is On Off Off Off Off Off (1-6). This sets the drive to be a single drive. Setting SW2 to Off On On Off Off Off makes it a slave drive. SW1 has been set to On Off Off On (1-4) all along.
MODEL CYLINDERS HEADS SECTORS CAPACITY (Million bytes)
M2622T 1013 10 63 326.75
M2623T 1002 13 63 420.16
M2624T 995 16 63 513.51
There are 6 switches on the switch block on these drives. Only 4 of
them have a use that I am aware of (from my M2624T manual):
Master/Slave Master (*) SW1-5 OFF
Slave SW1-5 ON
ECC bytes 4 bytes (*) SW1-4 OFF
7 bytes SW1-4 ON
Write Protect Disabled (*) SW1-3 OFF
Enabled SW1-3 ON
IO Channel Ready Disabled (*) SW1-1 OFF
Enabled SW1-1 ON
I have no idea about the function of SW1-2 and SW1-6. The values
listed with a (*) are the factory default settings.
M2618T 202MB Cyl/hd/spt 718 12 48
********************* Hewlett Packard ****************************
HEWLETT PACKARD Hewlett Packard hewlett packard HP Hp hp
C2233 227 MB Cyl/hd/spt 733 12 53
********************* IBM Ibm ibm ****************************
WDA-L160 163 MB Cyl/hd/spt 984 10 34
WDA-L42 42MB Cyl/hd/spt 977 5 17
Jumpers for IBM WDA-L160:
Fit JP2 for Master or single drive
Remove JP2 and fit JP3 for Slave
JP1 appears to be always fitted.
Functions of other jumpers unknown at present.
Position of jumpers:
-----------------------------------------
| Drive Mechanism |
| |
-----------------------------------------
PCB . . . .
. . . .
JP 4 3 2 1
Also:
IBM 85 M IDE (number not known)
10 Heads 984 Cylinders 17 Sectors 0 WPC 984 LZ
Patches as for L160 above
********************* JVC Jvc jvc ****************************
JD-E2085M 79 MB Cyl/hd/spt 973 4 43
*********************** KALOK Kalok kalok ***************************
KALOK KL3100 105 MB
BIOS: cyl 979 heads 6 sectors 35
KALOK KL3120 120 MB
BIOS: Cyl 981 heads 6 sectors 40
The following jumper settings have been reported for KL3100 but are probably
also valid for other Kalok drives.
Single HD:
o o o o o
o o o o-o <-- same row as pin 1 of the IDE connector.
Master (disk 1):
o o o o o
|
o o o o o
Slave:
o o o o o
|
o o o o o
These 5 pairs of pins are at the righthand side of the disk.
************************ MAXTOR Maxtor maxtor ***************************
Model Cyls Heads Sectors Precomp Landing Zone
---------- ----- ----- ------- ------- ------------
LXT-200A 816 15 32 0 816
LXT-213A 683 16 38 0 683
LXT-340A 654 16 63 0 654
LXT437A 842 16 63 0 842
LXT535A 1036 16 63 0 1024
Jumpers are as follows:
The bottom of the drive looks like this (well, sort of):
| o o 1-2 |
| o o 3-4 |
| o o 5-6 |
| o o 7-8 |
| o o 9-10 |
| |
+[POWER] [IDE CONNECTOR]-----+
Single drive Dual Drive System
Pin numbers Jumper System Master Slave
----------- ------ ------------ ------ -----
1-2 Slave Drive remove remove install
3-4 Activity LED optional optional optional
5-6 Slave Present remove remove optional
7-8 Master Drive remove install remove
9-10 Sync Spindle remove (n/a) optional* remove
* only one drive (the master) in an array should have this jumper installed.
Hd Cyl spt
Maxtor 2585A 10 981 17
Maxtor 7060A 16 467 17 62,0 J14 closed, J13 closed
Maxtor 7060A 7 1024 17 59,5 J14 open, J13 open
Maxtor 7060A 4 762 39 58,0 J14 closed, J13 open
Maxtor 7060A 8 925 17 57,9 J14 open, J13 closed
Maxtor 7120A 16 936 17 124,3 J14 closed, J13 closed
Maxtor 7120A 14 1024 17 119,0 j14 open, J13 open
Maxtor 7120A 8 762 39 116,0 J14 closed, J13 open
Maxtor 7120A 15 900 17 112,0 J14 open, J13 closed
Maxtor 7120A 8 824 33 106,2 J14
Jumpers for the above 2 drives:
J11 I/O-channel ready ( open: disabled; close: enabled )
J13 see above
J14 see above
J15 operation-status ( open: normal; close: factory )
J J J J J
2 1 1 1 1
0 9 8 7 6
Power data-cable
J16: Idle mode latch ( open: disabled; close: enabled )
J17: drive model ( open: 7060A; close 7120A )
J18: ECC Bytes ( open: 7 bytes; close: 4 bytes )
Master/Slave: drive is master and alone : J20 closed, J19 closed
drive is master of two drives: J20 closed, J19 open
drive is slave of two drives : J20 open , J19 closed
Maxtor 7213A
Default (power-up) AT BIOS Translation Parameters (others possible)
Cyl Hds SpT MBytes
683 16 38 212
There are two sets of jumpers. A set of 5 and a set of
4. With the power and IDE connector toward you, the set of 5 is
numbered (left to right) J16 - J20 , and the set of 4 is numbered
(bottom to top) J22-J25.
The only jumper of normal interest is J20. Jumper it for only
drive in a single drive system, or master drive in a dual drive
system.
Remove the jumper J20 for slave drive in a dual drive system.
J19 is a dummy and may be used to store the spare shunt if the
drive is configured for a slave mode.
Jumpers J17, J18, J24, J25 are factory reserved. Abnormal operation
may occur if jumpered.
Jumper 22 is sync spindle enabled/disabled (open=disabled)
Jumper 23 is sync slave/master (open=slave)
Jumper 16 is I/O Channel Ready (open=disabled)
Maxtor 7245A (245Mb IDE; self-parking; Universal Translate):
Drive type : User defineable
Cyl Hds WPC LZ S/T
967 16 0 0 31 (WPC and LZ optional)
Master(2): J20 closed
Slave(2): J20 open (use J19 for shunt storage)
Single: J20 closed
Basic Specifications
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Formated Data Sect. Average
Model Capacity Cylinders Heads Disks Track Cache Seek Time
7080A 82.2 MB 1.170 4 2 36 32k 17ms
7040A 41.1 MB 1.170 2 1 36 32k 17ms
AT BIOS Translation Parameters
---------------------------------+---------------------------------
Model Cyls Heads Spt MB | Model Cyls Heads Spt MB
7080A 1039 9 18 82.1 | 7040A 524 4 40 40.9
981 10 17 81.4 | 981 4 17 40.7
832 6 33 80.4 | 977 5 17 40.5
497 10 33 80.0 |
1024 9 17 76.5 |
Technical Notes:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* The WPC and Landing Zone BIOS entieres do not need a specific number
for proper operation. Maxtor AT interface hard drives will ignore and
override any numbers programmed.
* Drive is low-level formated with 1:1 interleave at factory, with any
defects retired to a dedicated non-destructive zone.
* The drive's on-board controller will auto-translate every cylinder,
head, and SPT combination listed in the parameters table. Therefore,
configuration jumpers J13 and J14 are not required for most AT BIOS
setup applications.
* The 7080A is shipped with J17-J20 jumered and the 7040A is shipped
with J18-J20 jumpered to operate as single AT IDE drives. J20 and J19
control master/slave operation.
7080A / 7040A Jumper Designation
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jumper | 21111 1111 | J3 1 +12V DC J7 1 +5V
Position | 09876 5431 | 2 +12V Ground 2 +12V
| | 3 +5V Ground 3 Ground
Pins +[4321]--[1 ]--[321]+ 4 +5V DC
J3 Power Data Cable J7 Power
J20 J19 Master/Slave Select (*) Single Drive closed, closed
Master (Dual) closed, open
Slave (Dual) open, closed
J18 ECC Bytes (*) closed 4 Bytes / open 7 Bytes
J17 Drive Model open 7040A / closed 7080A
J16 Idle Mode Latch (*) open disabled / closed enabled
J15 Reserved for Factory (*) open normal / closed factory
J11 I/O Channel Ready (*) open disabled / closed enabled
J14 J13 Default Configuration at Power Up
Cyls Heads SpT MB J14 J13 (J17)
40MB (*) 981 5 17 40.7 open open open
524 4 40 40.9 open closed open
80MB (*) 981 10 17 81.4 open open closed
832 6 33 80.4 open closed closed
1024 9 17 76.5 closed open closed
(60MB) 762 4 39 58.0 closed closed closed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(*) = Default Note: A spare jumper is supplied across J13 and J14.
>I have a 7131AT maxtor in my machine and setup info as follows:
>
> 1002 cylinders
> 8 heads
> 32 sectors
> 0 precomp
> 1002 LZ
>
********************* MICROPOLIS Micropolis micropolis ***********************
Drive 2105A 2112A
----------------------------------------
Unformatted MB 647 1220
Formatted MB 560 1050
Platters 5 8
Heads 8 15
Cylinders 1760 1760
----------------------------------------
Performance (both):
Track to track (read) 1.5 msec
Track to track (write) 2.5 msec
Average 10 msec
Max 25 msec
Avg Rotational Latency 5.56 msec
Rotational speed 5400 rpm (+/- 5%)
Data Transfer Rate upto 5Mbytes/sec
Internal data rate 24-40 Mbits/sec
BIOS Settings:
2105A 1084 cyl 16 heads 63 sectors
2112A* master 1024 cyl 16 heads 63 sectors
slave 1010 cyl 16 heads 63 sectors
* the 2112A emulates both master and slave
Jumpers (labelled J6 on the drive)
----
|oo| W1\ only these 2 are used
|oo| W2/
|oo|
|oo|
|oo|
----
W2 W1
-- --
in in 2112A only - drive emulates both master + slave
in out Drive is master, slave is present
out in Drive is slave
out out Drive is master, no slave present (ie single drive)
***************** MICROSCIENCE Microscience microscience *****************
MicroScience
Model: 7100-00
Heads: 7
Cylinders: 855
S/T: 35 (?)
Size: 105M
Model # 8040-00.
Size 40M 5hd/17sec/977cyl
Model # cyls # heads spt lz precomp cap (formatted)
7070-20 960 5 35 960 960 86 MB
7100-00 855 7 35 855 855 107 MB
7100-20 960 7 35 960 960 120 MB
8040 1024 2 40 1024 1024 41 MB
(NOTE: I have no jumper information on the model 8040)
On the 7xxx series the jumper pins are bent parallel to the board. When
they are pointing toward you #1 is on the left, there are 8 altogether.
single drive all open
master drive 1-2 shorted
slave drive 7-8 shorted
*************** MINISCRIBE Miniscribe miniscribe ************************
Miniscribe
MODEL AT CAP CYC H RWC WPC ENC RATE ACCESS SPT COMMENTS
8225AT 3.5" 21 745 2 - - 8 28 MS 28
8051AT 3.5" 42 745 4 - - 8 28 MS 28
8450AT 3.5" 42 745 4 - - 8 40 MS 28
Master(2): 5-6
Slave(2): 1-2
Single: 1-3 (shunt storage)
*************************** NEC Nec nec *********************************
NEC D3735, 40 MB
BIOS: Cyl 537 Head 4 sect 41
NEC D3755, 105 MB
BIOS: Cyl 625 Head 8 sect 41
NEC D3756, 105 MB
BIOS: Cyl 1005 Head 12 sect 17
NEC D3741, 44 MB
BIOS: Cyl 423 Head 8 sect 26 WPcom 0 LZone 424
Jumper JP12 JP13 (for all above NEC drives)
Single 0 0
Master 1 0
Slave 1 1
There have been reported difficulties in using WD Caviar as Master and
NEC drives as slave - the other way it works.
************************ QUANTUM Quantum quantum *************************
Logical Specs for Quantum AT Drives
COMPLIMENTS OF COMPUTER BROKERS OF CANADA
Model Cap Avg Acc Cylinders Heads Sectors/Track
(MB) (ms)
40AT 42 19 965 5 17
80AT 84 19 965 10 17
120AT 120 15 814 9 32
170AT 168 15 968 10 34
210AT 209 15 873 13 36
425AT 426 14 1021 16 51
LPS 52AT 52 17 751 8 17
LPS 80AT 83 17 611 16 17
LPS 105AT 105 17 755 16 17
LPS 120AT 122 16 901 5 53
LPS 170AT 160 15 968 10 34
LPS 240AT 245 16 723 13 51
LPS 540A see below
=================================================
Legend: 1=Jumper Installed 0=No Jumper
=================================================
40 & 80 AT Jumpers
DS SS Meaning
1 0 Single drive configuration
1 1 Master of dual drive
0 0 Slave of dual drive
0 1 Self-Seek Test
=======================================================
120, 170, 210 & 425 AT Jumpers
DS SP SS Meaning
0 0 0 Slave when the Master is Quantum PRODRIVE other than 40/80A
0 0 1 Slave in PRODRIVE 40/80A mode
0 1 0 Slave when Master is non Quantum Drive
0 1 1 Not Used
1 0 1 Master drive PDIAG mode checking DASP for slave
1 1 0 Master in PDIAG mode using SP to check if slave present
1 1 1 Master in 40/80A mode using SP to check if slave present
1 0 0 Single drive
=======================================================
LPS 52, 80, 105, 120, 170 & 240 AT Jumpers
DS SP DM* Meaning
0 0 0 Slave in standard PDIAG mode for compatibility with drives that use
PDIAG-line to handle Master/Slave communications
0 0 1 Slave in PRODRIVE 40/80A mode compat. without using PDIAG line
0 1 0 Self Test
0 1 1 Self Test
1 0 0 Master in PDIAG mode using DASP to check for Slave
1 0 1 Master in 40/80A Mode using DASP to check for Slave
1 1 0 Master in PDIAG mode using SP to check for Slave without
checking DASP
1 1 1 Master in 40/80A mode using SP to check for Slave without
checking DASP
======================================================================
* While my Spec form marked the jumper name DM, it is labeled as CS on
my LPS 240AT drive.
Quantum LPS540A:
1120 cyl. 16 hds. 59 sec/trck 541MB
1024 cyl. 16 hds. 63 sec/trck 528MB
The second option is for those that will use the drive under DOS (1024 limit
without driver support).
9-12ms avg. access time
ECC Reed Solomon, 4,500 rpm, local bus support, fast multiword DMA, 128k cache
(of this 32k is used by firmware), read/write caching.
The QUANTUM ELS series:
Model Cap Avg Acc Cylinders Heads Sectors/Track
(MB) (ms)
ELS42AT 42 - 968 5 17
ELS85AT 85 - 977 10 17
ELS127AT 127 - 919 16 17
ELS170AT 170 - 1011 15 22
Write precomp = 0 for all Quantum drives ( probably no significance)
Landing Zone = Cylinders
Straps: If an ELS drive is
master only, use DS
master with slave, DS or, DS and SP in some cases
slave, no strap
********************* RODIME Rodime rodime ******************************
Information for RO 3008A and RO 3009A series hard disk drives:
Drive Types
Model Cyls Hds Sectors/Trk No. blocks Formatted Cap.
------- ---- --- ----------- ---------- --------------
RO3058A 868 3 34 88,536 45.33 MByets
RO3088A 868 5 34 147,560 75.55 MByets
RO3095A 923 5 34 156,910 80.33 MByets
RO3128A 868 7 34 206,584 105.77 MByets
RO3135A 923 7 34 219,674 112.47 MByets
RO3059A 217 15 28 91,158 46.67 MByets
RO3089A 325 15 28 136,737 70.00 MByets
RO3129A 492 15 28 206,645 105.80 MByets
RO3139A 523 15 28 219,735 112.50 MByets
RO3209A 759 15 28 319,053 163.35 MByets
RO3259A 976 15 28 410,211 210.02 MByets
Link Options
In order to install the Rodime Ro 3000A series drives the dumpers for
the single/dual drive and LED operation on the drive need to be set as
described in the relevant product specification.
I a single drive environment the drive is described as a Master.
In a dual drive environment the drives are described as a Master and a
Slave. This is due to the protocal the takes place between the two drives
when performing diagnostics.
There are four links, LK1, LK2, LK4 and LK5, adjacent to the 40 way
interface connector. They have the following functions and are described
in order as viewed from the end of the drive, with the first jumper
described nearest the 40 way interface connector.
LK2: LED
When fitted, this jumper connects the LED drive to pin 39 of the
interface. This allows a LED to be connected to the interface. An
external current limiting resistor needs to be fitted in series with
the LED when this option is selected. The value of the resistor will
be dependant on the LED type chosen but will be in the range of 130
Ohms ot 220 Ohms.
LK1: Dual Drives
This jumper must be fitted when two drives are attached to a single
bus. It fallows communication across the 40 way interface connector,
indicating, to the Master drive, the presence of a Slave.
LK4: Master
When fitted this signifies that the drive jumpered is a Master. If
there are two drives connected on a single bus then only one may be
jumpered in this way.
LK5: IOChRdy
When fitted this connects the IOChRdy signal to the drive, it is
fitted when the drive is used in host systems that have a higher
data transfer rate than the drive i.e. greater than 4 MBytes per
second when using 1:1 interleave. This jumper is not normally
fitted as most hosts transfer at a lower rate than 4 MBytes per
second.
There are four possible Master/Slave configurations in which a drive(s)
may be jumpered:
Master, single drive with LED on interface LK2 & LK4 fitted.
Master, single drive without LED on interface LK4 only fitted.
Master, dual drive without LED on interface LK4 & LK1 fitted.
Slave, dual drive without LED on interface No jumpers fitted.
Master, dual drive with LED on interface LK4, LK1 & LK2 fitted.
Slave, dual drive with LED on interface LK2 only fitted.
The Master drive will delay power-up for approximately two seconds to
reduce power surges in applications where dual drives are used.
The other connections for a LED will be found close to the 28 way
connector at the other end of the drive. This LED driver is not affected
by the link options. An internal current limiting resistor is on the
drive for this LED driver. Refer to the product specification for further
details.
*************************** SAMSUNG Samsung samsung *************************
CYL hd Sectors
SHD-3101A 776 8 33 (100 MB) (MB = 1024 bytes)
SHD-3061A 977 7 17 (56.76 MB)
SHD-3062A 917 15 17 (114 MB)
for drive SHD-3101A, SHD-3061A and SHD-3062A
2 drives
Jumper 1 drive Master Slave
C/D J J NJ
DSP NJ J NJ
ACT J (1) (1)
HSP NJ NJ (2)
J = Jumpered
NJ = No Jumpered
(1) In a two-drive system,it is possible to drive one LED
with both drives. An external current limiting resister is required
(2) If the drive is connected to a host that requires that the - DIRVE SLAVE
PRESENT be supplied from the slave drive via the interface signal -
HOST SLV/ACT, then this jumper must be installed, the ACT jumper must
not be installed because the two jumpers are mutually exclusive
*************************** SEAGATE Seagate seagate *************************
There is a list of most Seagate HD (including MFM, SCSI, ESDIand IDE) on
every Simtel mirror under
/msdos/dskutl/1seagate.zip
It contains info about the following drives:
st1144a st138a st274a st3283a
st1057a st1156a st1400a st280a st351ax
st1090a st1162a st1401a st3051a st9051a
st1102a st1186a st1480a st3096a st9077a
st1111a st1201a st157a st3120a st9096a
st1126a st1239a st2274a st3144a st9144a
st1133a st125a st2383a st325ax
additional info:
ST3243A 204 MB Cyl/Hd/spt 1024/12/34
ST351AX 41 MB 820/6/17
ST9235A 200 MB 985/13/32
and also...
pd1:<msdos.info> (on SIMTEL mirrors)
1SGATHTX.ZIP Seagate tech support's disk ref (needs HHV20)
This is a concise and complete source of information for all hard disks
that Seagate makes, including MFM, RLL, IDE, and SCSI types. This
information includes:
Detailed technical specifications for each drive
Switch and Jumper settings for each drive (more than just settings
for BIOSs and low--level formatting routines)
Miscellaneous notes about each drive
This is the most up-to-date information that Seagate provides on its BBS.
It is dated 05/14/93.
This file is a hypertext version of file 1SEAGATE.ZIP and requires
HHV20.ZIP to view it.
******************* TEAC Teac teac ********************
Model: SD-3105
Cyls. Heads Sect/T PreCmp LZone Capacity
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ---------
Physical 1282 4 40 - - 105021440
BIOS (AMI) 641 8 40 0 0 105021440 (100.2M)
(Award) 926 13 17 0 0 104778752 (99.9M)
(Phoenix) 776 8 33 0 0 104890368 (100.0M)
Connectors and Jumpers:
+----+ 1 Jumper Function
|....| +---+ +-------/ /---+ 2 0 0 ON: -ACT selected (ext.LED)
| | |...| |::::::/ /::::| :::: OFF: -SLV PRESENT selected
+----+ +---+ +-----/ /-----+ 3 1 1 ON: Two HDD's
J2 J7 40 J1 ---- OFF: Single HDD
Power (Power) Signal Jumpers 2 ON: Master (/Single)
OFF: Slave (with 2 units used)
3 ON: -I/O CH RDY not output
OFF: -I/O CH RDY is output
Master Slave Settings:
Jumper no.: 1 2
-----------------------
Single....: 0 1 1, ON = jumpered
Master....: 1 1 0, OFF = not jumpered
Slave.....: 1 0
********************* TOSHIBA Toshiba toshiba ***************************
cap Cyl Hd spt
MK1122FC 41 977 2 43
MK2024FC 82 977 4 43
MK2124FC 124 934 16 17
MK2224FC 203 684 16 38
MK234FCH 101 845 7 35
Toshiba MK 234FCF.
845 Cyl
7 Head
0 Pre
845 LZ
35 Sectors
101 Size
The jumpers settings I got from Toshiba. They refer to
connector PJ10, the 1st being the pair of pins closet to the
outside of the drive and the 6th being the pair closest to
center of the drive.
configuration jumpers on
------------ ----------
single drive 1st and 3rd
master w/ slave 1st, 3rd, and 4th
slave 1st
**************** WESTERN DIGITAL Western Digital western digital **************
Caviar series:
Name Size (Mb) Cylinders Heads Sectors
----------------------------------------------------
WDAC140 40.7 980 5 17
WDAC280 81.3 980 10 17
WDAC1170 163 1010 6 55
WDAC2120 119.0 1024 14 17
WDAC2170 162.7 1010 6 55
WDAC2200 202.8 989 12 35
WDAC2250 244 1010 9 55
WDAC2340 325.4 1010 12 55
WDAC2420 405.6 989 15 56
> My 1st HD was a Quantum (LPS) 105AT (I assume th LPS, as I haven't any
> docs.)
> >LPS 105AT 105 17 755 16 17
> The second was a Western Digital Caviar 340Mb:
> >WDAC2340 325.4 1010 12 55
> Using the information from your document, I set up the Quantum as master
> and the WDC as slave. This worked fine most of the time, but when booting
> sometimes HDD-controller errors occured. When I switched the drives (WDC
> as master, Quantum as slave) it worked perfectly, as has done ever since.
Manufacturer: Western Digital
Serie: Caviar
Name: WDAC2420
Size(Mb): 405.6
Cylinders: 989
Heads: 15
Sectors: 56
(uses dynamic translation)
Jumpers: CP MA SL
The drive runs as a slave with a WDAC2200 as master just fine.
Please note that these are the *recommended* CMOS parameters. All the disks
support so-called dynamic translation, and should thus be able to work with
any parameters having fewer sectors than the total number of sectors on
the disk.
Now, according to the manual, the jumper settings are as follows:
Jumper CP MA SL
-------------------------------------------------
Single 0 0 0
Master 0 1 0
Slave 0 0 1
Slave with Conner CP342 or CP3022 1 0 1
Maybe there are 2 kinds of Caviar's floating around:
If your jumpers read MA SL and SI then use:
Jumper SI MA SL
Single 1 0 0
Master 0 1 0
Slave 0 0 1
There have been reported difficulties in using WD Caviar as Master and
NEC drives as slave - the other way it works.
> When I installed a Conner CP3204F (203 MB) as master and a WD Caviar 2200
> (203 MB) as slave, both with and without the "CP" jumper, the Caviar had
> seemingly normal behaviour. However, when doing writes to the Caviar, once
> in a while it would overwrite directories etc. Using FASTBACK was almost
> impossible.
>
> The workaround is to install the Caviar as the master, and the Conner
> as the slave.
> I had a WD pirana 4200 (212 mb) IDE drive and added a Caviar 2340 (341 mb)
> drive. No matter what I did with the CMOS settings, as soon as I define
> the D drive (as anything) and rebooted, it would hang for about 2 minutes
> and then report "D: drive failure". I am using an intelligent IDE controller
> since my AMI bios was too old to support IDE drives.
>
> The fix was to call the 4200 the slave and the 2340 the master.
> All has been working fine since then.
WD93044-A (40 MB)
BIOS-Settings
977 cyln, 5 heads, 17 sect, LZone: 977
+-------+ +---+---+---+ 1: drive is master
| cable | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2: drive is slave
+-------+ +---+---+---+ 3: second drive is a conner-drive
No jumper set: this is the only drive.
WDAH260 60MB Cyl/Hd/spt 1024 7 17
WDAH280 82MB 980 10 17
WDAP4200 202MB 987 12 35
******************** Useful telephone numbers... ********************
Conner:
BBS: 408-456-4415
Talk info: 1-800-426-6637
FaxBack: 408-456-4903
The "Talk info" number above is now a Fax-on-demand system. Very nice,
considering both the incoming call and outgoing fax are paid for by them!
You can also speak with a human for technical assistance at this number.
(Conner Europe (in UK) ; +44 628 777277 (voice)
+44 628 592801 (fax))
Miniscribe:
303-651-6000
Maxtor:
Info/tech support: 800-262-9867
FAX-back: 303-678-2618
BBS: 303-678-2222
They list their 800 number as 1(800)2-MAXTOR.
Quantum:
408-894-4000
408-944-0410 (Support)
408-894-3218 (FAX)
408-894-3214 (BBS)
Seagate:
Info/tech support: 408-438-8222
FAX-back: 408-438-2620
BBS: 408-438-8771
Western Digital:
Info/tech support: 714-932-4900
BBS:
U.S. 1200/2400 714-753-1234
U.S. 9600 714-753-1068
France 1200/2400 ..-331-69-85-3914 (? French code is 33 not 331)
Germany 1200/2400 ..-49-89-922006-60
U.K. 1200/2400 ..-44-372-360387
The US Toll free number for Western Digital tech support is
800-832-4778
******************* last but not least *****************
If I could help you with my little collection and if you live in a
part of the world far away from me, how about a postcard for my pinboard?
I will surely answer!
Carsten Grammes
Saarbruecker Str. 47
D-66292 Riegelsberg
Germany
===============
Ralph Valentino (ralf@chpc.org) (ralf@wpi.wpi.edu)
Hardware Engineer, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Center for High Performance Computing, Marlborough MA
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From: ralf@chpc.org (Ralph Valentino)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.comm,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.* Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Part 3/4
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc
Date: 18 Jan 1994 16:36:39 GMT
Organization: Center For High Performance Computing
Lines: 918
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Expires: 11 Feb 1994 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <2hh36n$oru@bigboote.WPI.EDU>
Reply-To: ralf@wpi.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: wpi.wpi.edu
Summary: This is a monthly posting containing a list of Frequently
Asked Questions (and their answers) pertaining to hardware
and IBM PC clones. It should be read by anyone who wishes
to post to any group in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.*
hierarchy.
Originator: ralf@wpi.WPI.EDU
Archive-name: pc-hardware-faq/part3
Last-modified: 1994/01/10
Version: 1.0
Q) 4.2 Why do I lose x Meg on my hard drive?
[From: Mike Long <mike.long@analog.com>]
The problem here is that there are two different measures of hard
drive storage, both called megabytes. Computer hardware works on the
basis that one megabyte equals 2^20, or 1048576 bytes. Hard drive
manufacturers, on the other hand, use a megabyte that has 1000000
bytes, because it makes the drive looks larger. When buying a hard
drive, you should expect to lose almost 5% of what the manufacturer
claims the drive size to be.
The manufacturers are not totally at fault. The first track of the
drive is used for the partition table and master boot record. The
amount of data lost here depends on your drive parameters; usually
there are between 32 and 64 sectors (512 bytes/sector) on this first
track, so you lose between 16384 and 32768 bytes that way.
Additional space is taken up by two hidden files on your boot drive.
If you are running MS-DOS, these files are IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS. If
you are running PC-DOS, the names are IBMIO.SYS and IBMDOS.SYS (?).
[From: ralf@wpi.wpi.edu (Ralph Valentino)]
Many drives these days advertise unformatted capacity. The actual
formatted capacity may be significantly lower than this as space is
taken up marking tracks, sectors, CRC's, etc. Exactly how much lower
depends on the the size of the sectors. For instance, placing 1k
sectors on the disk instead of the usual 512 byte ones may slightly
increase the usable storage space on the disk. Note, however, that
many OS's insist you stick to the 512 byte sectors so this option is
best left alone.
A large number of drives also do auto-mapping of bad sectors; when a
sector goes bad, it will automatically use a spare it kept aside
during the format. This is very handy as the OS never needs to deal
with the problem and some OS's, like DOS, will mark a whole cluster
bad when a single sector goes bad. These spare sectors, as many as
one per track, remain hidden from the OS but still take up space on
your hard drive.
When you get to drives larger than 1.0 gig (SCSI), many host adapter
BIOS's can not deal with this as the BIOS was never designed to handle
more than 1024 cylinders, 64 heads, and 32 sectors per track. (1024 *
64 * 32 * 512bytes/sec = 1.0 gig). Luckily, some OS's (like OS/2)
ignore the BIOS all together and read the actual geometry from the
disk itself. If, however, you're not using such an OS and you notice
that you only have 1.0 gig available, you may want to check with the
manufacturer of your SCSI host adapter to see if a newer BIOS is
available.
Q) 4.3 *Should I get an IDE/floppy/SCSI tape drive?
Q) 4.4 How come I can't fit as much stuff on my tape drive as they claim?
Most tape drives these days advertise capacity with an expected
compression ratio. If you are backing up compressed files (.Z,.ZIP,
.ARC, .JPEG, and so forth) then the drive's own compression scheme
will not be as effective. For these cases, the actual capacity of the
tape will be closer to the "uncompressed" capacity.
A second reason is that some tapes assume you will be taking full
advantage of their "streamers". Streaming collects a number of tape
blocks and writes them all at once, preventing the need for backing up
the tape after each block. This positions the blocks closer together
on the tape. If your backup program is slow, some streamers won't be
quite as effective. If you hear the tape drive motor backing up the
tape alot on writes, this could be the case.
S) 5.0 Video
Q) 5.1 *Can I use two video cards in the same system?
Q) 5.2 *What kinds of monitors are available?
Q) 5.3 *Can I get an RGB monitor to work with my PC?
Q) 5.4 *How can I hook more than one monitor to my video card?
Q) 5.5 *Which video card is best for DOS/Windows/X11/OS2?
Q) 5.6 *What is the black horizontal line on my monitor?
S) 6.0 Systems
Q) 6.1 *What should I upgrade first?
Q) 6.2 *Do I need a CPU fan / heat sink?
Q) 6.3 What does the turbo switch do?
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer)]
It slows your system down so you can play games that were written
with timing mechanisms based on CPU execution rate. I know of three
implementations:
1. A programmable divider delivers the clock signal at two different
speeds.
2. Extra wait states are inserted in all memory cycles.
3. Dummy DMA cycles or extra referesh cycles are inserted.
The first is by far the most common.
Q) 6.4 Should I turn my computer/monitor off?
Turning a device on/off causes thermal stress. Leaving it on causes
wear and tear (even on non moving parts). The only thing you
shouldn't do is quickly power cycle the computer. If you turn it
on/off, leave it that way for at least a few seconds. Other than
that, it's up to you.
Q) 6.5 Are there any manufacturers/distributers who read the net?
Yes, it is known that Zeos, Gateway 2000, Adaptec, HP and others all
read the net to some extent. However, for best results, use the
support phone numbers.
S) 7.0 Diagnostics
Q) 7.1 *What do the POST beeps mean?
Q) 7.2 What do the POST codes mean?
[From: zz96sr@sdacs.ucsd.edu (Steve Rusk)]
All personal computer error codes for the Power On Self Test, General
Diagnostics, and Advanced Diagnostics consist of a device number followed by
two digits other than 00. (The device number plus 00 indicates successful
completion of the test.)
This list is a compilation from various sources, including USENET's
Info-IBMPC Digest, IBM Technical Reference Manuals, and IBM Hardware,
Maintenance and Service manuals.
01x Undetermined problem errors.
02x Power supply errors.
1xx System board errors.
101 System board error - Interrupt failure.
102 System board error - Timer failure.
103 System board error - Timer interrupt failure.
104 System board error - Protected mode failure.
105 System board error - Last 8042 command not accepted.
106 System board error - Converting logic test.
107 System board error - Hot NMI test.
108 System board error - Timer bus test.
109 Direct memory access test error.
121 Unexpected hardware interrupts occurred.
131 Cassette wrap test failed.
152
161 System Options Error-(Run SETUP) [Battery failure].
162 System options not set correctly-(Run SETUP).
163 Time and date not set-(Run SETUP).
164 Memory size error-(Run SETUP).
199 User-indicated configuration not correct.
2xx Memory (RAM) errors.
201 Memory test failed.
202 Memory address error.
203 Memory address error.
3xx Keyboard errors.
301 Keyboard did not respond to software reset correctly, or a stuck
key failure was detected. If a stuck key was detected, the
scan code for the key is displayed in hexadecimal. For
example, the error code 49 301 indicates that key 73, the
PgUp key, has failed (49 hex = 73 decimal).
302 User-indicated error from the keyboard test, or AT keylock
is locked.
303 Keyboard or system unit error.
304 Keyboard or system unit error; CMOS does not match system.
4xx Monochrome monitor errors.
401 Monochrome memory test, horizontal sync frequency test, or
video test failed.
408 User-indicated display attributes failure.
416 User-indicated character set failure.
424 User-indicated 80 X 25 mode failure.
432 Parallel port test failed (monochrome adapter).
5xx Color monitor errors.
501 Color memory test failed, horizontal sync frequency test, or
video test failed.
508 User-indicated display attribute failure.
516 User-indicated character set failure.
524 User-indicated 80 X 25 mode failure.
532 User-indicated 40 X 25 mode failure.
540 User-indicated 320 X 200 graphics mode failure.
548 User-indicated 640 X 200 graphics mode failure.
6xx Diskette drive errors.
601 Diskette power-on diagnostics test failed.
602 Diskette test failed; boot record is not valid.
606 Diskette verifysd function failed.
607 Write-protected diskette.
608 Bad command diskette status returned.
610 Diskette initialization failed.
611 Timeout - diskette status returned.
612 Bad NEC - diskette status returned.
613 Bad DMA - diskette status returned.
621 Bad seek - diskette status returned.
622 Bad CRC - diskette status returned.
623 Record not found - diskette status returned.
624 Bad address mark - diskette status returned.
625 Bad NEC seek - diskette status returned.
626 Diskette data compare error.
7xx 8087 or 80287 math coprocessor errors.
9xx Parallel printer adapter errors.
901 Parallel printer adapter test failed.
10xx Reserved for parallel printer adapter.
11xx Asynchronous communications adapter errors.
1101 Asynchronous communications adapter test failed.
12xx Alternate asynchronous communications adapter errors.
1201 Alternate asynchronous communications adapter test failed.
13xx Game control adapter errors.
1301 Game control adapter test failed.
1302 Joystick test failed.
14xx Printer errors.
1401 Printer test failed.
1404 Matrix printer failed.
15xx Synchronous data link control (SDLC) communications adapter errors.
1510 8255 port B failure.
1511 8255 port A failure.
1512 8255 port C failure.
1513 8253 timer 1 did not reach terminal count.
1514 8253 timer 1 stuck on.
1515 8253 timer 0 did not reach terminal count.
1516 8253 timer 0 stuck on.
1517 8253 timer 2 did not reach terminal count.
1518 8253 timer 2 stuck on.
1519 8273 port B error.
1520 8273 port A error.
1521 8273 command/read timeout.
1522 Interrupt level 4 failure.
1523 Ring Indicate stuck on.
1524 Receive clock stuck on.
1525 Transmit clock stuck on.
1526 Test indicate stuck on.
1527 Ring indicate not on.
1528 Receive clock not on.
1529 Transmit clock not on.
1530 Test indicate not on.
1531 Data set ready not on.
1532 Carrier detect not on.
1533 Clear to send not on.
1534 Data set ready stuck on.
1536 Clear to send stuck on.
1537 Level 3 interrupt failure.
1538 Receive interrupt results error.
1539 Wrap data miscompare.
1540 DMA channel 1 error.
1541 DMA channel 1 error.
1542 Error in 8273 error checking or status reporting.
1547 Stray interrupt level 4.
1548 Stray interrupt level 3.
1549 Interrupt presentation sequence timeout.
16xx Display emulation errors (327x, 5520, 525x).
17xx Fixed disk errors.
1701 Fixed disk POST error.
1702 Fixed disk adapter error.
1703 Fixed disk drive error.
1704 Fixed disk adapter or drive error.
1780 Fixed disk 0 failure.
1781 Fixed disk 1 failure.
1782 Fixed disk controller failure.
1790 Fixed disk 0 error.
1791 Fixed disk 1 error.
18xx I/O expansion unit errors.
1801 I/O expansion unit POST error.
1810 Enable/Disable failure.
1811 Extender card warp test failed (disabled).
1812 High order address lines failure (disabled).
1813 Wait state failure (disabled).
1814 Enable/Disable could not be set on.
1815 Wait state failure (disabled).
1816 Extender card warp test failed (enabled).
1817 High order address lines failure (enabled).
1818 Disable not functioning.
1819 Wait request switch not set correctly.
1820 Receiver card wrap test failure.
1821 Receiver high order address lines failure.
19xx 3270 PC attachment card errors.
20xx Binary synchronous communications (BSC) adapter errors.
2010 8255 port A failure.
2011 8255 port B failure.
2012 8255 port C failure.
2013 8253 timer 1 did not reach terminal count.
2014 8253 timer 1 stuck on.
2016 8253 timer 2 did not reach terminal count, or timer 2 stuck on.
2017 8251 Data set ready failed to come on.
2018 8251 Clear to send not sensed.
2019 8251 Data set ready stuck on.
2020 8251 Clear to send stuck on.
2021 8251 hardware reset failed.
2022 8251 software reset failed.
2023 8251 software "error reset" failed.
2024 8251 transmit ready did not come on.
2025 8251 receive ready did not come on.
2026 8251 could not force "overrun" error status.
2027 Interrupt failure - no timer interrupt.
2028 Interrupt failure - transmit, replace card or planar.
2029 Interrupt failure - transmit, replace card.
2030 Interrupt failure - receive, replace card or planar.
2031 Interrupt failure - receive, replace card.
2033 Ring indicate stuck on.
2034 Receive clock stuck on.
2035 Transmit clock stuck on.
2036 Test indicate stuck on.
2037 Ring indicate stuck on.
2038 Receive clock not on.
2039 Transmit clock not on.
2040 Test indicate not on.
2041 Data set ready not on.
2042 Carrier detect not on.
2043 Clear to send not on.
2044 Data set ready stuck on.
2045 Carrier detect stuck on.
2046 Clear to send stuck on.
2047 Unexpected transmit interrupt.
2048 Unexpected receive interrupt.
2049 Transmit data did not equal receive data.
2050 8251 detected overrun error.
2051 Lost data set ready during data wrap.
2052 Receive timeout during data wrap.
21xx Alternate binary synchronous communications adapter errors.
2110 8255 port A failure.
2111 8255 port B failure.
2112 8255 port C failure.
2113 8253 timer 1 did not reach terminal count.
2114 8253 timer 1 stuck on.
2115 8253 timer 2 did not reach terminal count, or timer 2 stuck on.
2116 8251 Data set ready failed to come on.
2117 8251 Clear to send not sensed.
2118 8251 Data set ready stuck on.
2119 8251 Clear to send stuck on.
2120 8251 hardware reset failed.
2121 8251 software reset failed.
2122 8251 software "error reset" failed.
2123 8251 transmit ready did not come on.
2124 8251 receive ready did not come on.
2125 8251 could not force "overrun" error status.
2126 Interrupt failure - no timer interrupt.
2128 Interrupt failure - transmit, replace card or planar.
2129 Interrupt failure - transmit, replace card.
2130 Interrupt failure - receive, replace card or planar.
2131 Interrupt failure - receive, replace card.
2133 Ring indicate stuck on.
2134 Receive clock stuck on.
2135 Transmit clock stuck on.
2136 Test indicate stuck on.
2137 Ring indicate stuck on.
2138 Receive clock not on.
2139 Transmit clock not on.
2140 Test indicate not on.
2141 Data set ready not on.
2142 Carrier detect not on.
2143 Clear to send not on.
2144 Data set ready stuck on.
2145 Carrier detect stuck on.
2146 Clear to send stuck on.
2147 Unexpected transmit interrupt.
2148 Unexpected receive interrupt.
2149 Transmit data did not equal receive data.
2150 8251 detected overrun error.
2151 Lost data set ready during data wrap.
2152 Receive timeout during data wrap.
22xx Cluster adapter errors.
24xx Enhanced graphics adapter errors.
29xx Color matrix printer errors.
2901
2902
2904
33xx Compact printer errors.
Q) 7.3 *I think my cache is bad. What's a good diagnostic?
S) 8.0 Misc
Q) 8.1 What is the pin out for ...?
[From: ralf@wpi.wpi.edu (Ralph Valentino)]
This is a list of the pinouts to the more common PC hardware
interfaces. It is by no means complete. While I have taken care not
to make any mistakes, I urge you to take caution when using these
tables. Also, please keep in mind that these are only tables, they
are not a guide to hardware hacking and do not attempt to explain
drive capabilities, signal timings, handling care, or other interface
issues. As always, make sure you know what you're doing before you
start hooking wires to your PC.
5pin DIN Male DB15-S Male
--+-- ----------------------
/ ^ \ \ 1 2 3 4 5 /
| 1 3 | \ 6 7 8 9 10 /
\ 425 / \ 11 12 13 14 15 /
----- ----------------
DB9 Male DB15 Male
------------- --------------------------
\ 1 2 3 4 5 / \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 /
\ 6 7 8 9 / \ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 /
--------- ----------------------
DB25 Male IDC-50 Male
------------------------------ -------------------
\ 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 ... 13 / | 1 3 5 7 ... 49 |
\ 12 13 14 15 16 .......25 / | 2 4 6 8 ... 50 |
-------------------------- -------------------
(Power Connector) Male
__________
/ \
| 4 3 2 1 |
------------
30 pin SIMM 72 pin SIMM
------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
| | | |
) | ) _ |
--|||||||||||||||||||||||||--- --|||||||||||||||/ \|||||||||||||||---
1 30 1 36 37 72
EISA/ISA/VLB
-----------------------------------------------
| (component side) |
| |
| VLB __ ISA-16bit __ ISA-8bit __|
||||||||| ||||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||| A1(front)/B1(back)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | <-EISA
C1/D1 E1(front)/F1(back)
G1/H1
PCI Cards Universal/3.3V/5V and 32/64 bit.
PCI Universal Card 32/64 bit
----------------------------------------------------------------
| PCI Component Side (side B) |
| |
| |
| optional |
| ____ mandatory 32-bit pins 64-bit pins _____|
|___| |||||||--|||||||||||||||||--|||||||--||||||||||||||
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
b01 b11 b14 b49 b52 b62 b63 b94
PCI 5V Card 32/64 bit
| optional |
| ____ mandatory 32-bit pins 64-bit pins _____|
|___| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||--|||||||--||||||||||||||
PCI 3.3V Card 32/64 bit
| optional |
| ____ mandatory 32-bit pins 64-bit pins _____|
|___| |||||||--||||||||||||||||||||||||||--||||||||||||||
Power Connector Male
pin assignment
1 +12V
2 +12V return
3 +5V return
4 +5V
MIDI 5pin DIN
MIDI In MIDI Out
pin assignment pin assignment
1 N/C 1 N/C
2 N/C 2 GND
3 N/C 3 N/C
4 Current Src 4 Current Sync
5 Current Sync 5 Current Src
Floppy Disk Controller IDC-34 Male
pin assignment pin assignment
1 GND 2 Density Select
3 GND 4 (reserved)
5 GND 6 (reserved)
7 GND 8 Index
9 GND 10 Motor Enable A
11 GND 12 Drive Sel B
13 GND 14 Drive Sel A
15 GND 16 Motor Enable B
17 GND 18 Direction
19 GND 20 Step
21 GND 22 Write Data
23 GND 24 Floppy Write Enable
25 GND 26 Track 0
27 GND 28 Write Protect
29 GND 30 Read Data
31 GND 32 Head Select
33 GND 34 Disk Change
Game Port DB15-Female
pin assignment pin assignment
1 +5V DC 2 Button 4 (A_PB1)
3 Position 0(A_X) 4 GND
5 GND 6 Position 1 (A_Y)
7 Button 5(A_PB2) 8 +5V DC
9 +5V DC 10 Button 6 (B_PB1)
11 Position 2(B_X) 12 GND
13 Position 3(B_Y) 14 Button 7 (B_PB2)
15 +5V DC
Serial Port DB9-Male DB25-Male
9-pin 25-pin assignment
1 8 DCD (Data Carrier Detect)
2 3 RX (Receive Data)
3 2 TX (Transmit Data)
4 20 DTR (Data Terminal Ready)
5 7 GND (Signal Ground)
6 6 DSR (Data Set Ready)
7 4 RTS (Request To Send)
8 5 CTS (Clear To Send)
9 22 RI (Ring Indicator)
Parallel Port DB25-Female
pin assignment pin assignment
1 -Strobe 2 Data 0
3 Data 1 4 Data 2
5 Data 3 6 Data 4
7 Data 5 8 Data 6
9 Data 7 10 -Ack
11 Busy 12 Paper Empty
13 Select 14 -Auto Feed
15 -Error 16 -Init
17 -Slct in 18 GND
19 GND 20 GND
21 GND 22 GND
23 GND 24 GND
25 GND
AT Keyboard Connector 5pin-DIN
pin assignment
1 Keyboard Clock
2 Keyboard Data
3 N/C
4 GND
5 +5V
IDE Hard Disk Interface IDC-40 Male
pin assignment pin assignment
1 -Reset 2 GND
3 Data 7 4 Data 8
5 Data 6 6 Data 9
7 Data 5 8 Data 10
9 Data 4 10 Data 11
11 Data 3 12 Data 12
13 Data 2 14 Data 13
15 Data 1 16 Data 14
17 Data 0 18 Data 15
19 GND 20 Key
21 (reserved) 22 GND
23 -IOW 24 GND
25 -IOR 26 GND
27 IO Chrdy 28 Ale
29 (reserved) 30 GND
31 IRQ14 32 -IOCS16
33 Addr 1 34 (reserved)
35 Addr 0 36 Addr 2
37 -CS0 (1F0-1F7) 38 -CS1 (3f6-3f7)
39 -Active 40 GND
VGA DB15-S Female
pin assignment pin assignment
1 Red 2 Green
3 Blue 4 Minitor ID bit 2
5 N/C 6 GND
7 GND 8 GND
9 N/C 10 GND
11 Monitor ID bit0 12 Minitor ID bit 1
13 Horizontal Sync 14 Vertical Sync
15 N/C
ISA Bus Connector EISA Bus Connector
----------------- ------------------
Back Side Component Side Back Side Component Side
pin assignment |pin assignment |pin assignment |pin assignment
B1 GND |A1 CHCHK# |F1 GND |E1 CMD#
B2 Reset DRV |A2 SD7 |F2 +5V |E2 START#
B3 +5V |A3 SD6 |F3 +5V |E3 EXRDY
B4 IRQ9 |A4 SD5 |F4 --- |E4 EX32#
B5 -5V |A5 SD4 |F5 --- |E5 GND
B6 DRQ2 |A6 SD3 |F6 ACCESS KEY |E6 ACCESS KEY
B7 -12V |A7 SD2 |F7 --- |E7 EX16#
B8 NOWS# |A8 SD1 |F8 --- |E8 SLBURST#
B9 +12V |A9 SD0 |F9 +12V |E9 MSBURST#
B10 GND |A10 CHRDY |F10 M/IO# |E10 W/R#
B11 SMWTC# |A11 AEN |F11 LOCK# |E11 GND
B12 SMRDC# |A12 SA19 |F12 (reserved) |E12 (reserved)
B13 IOWC# |A13 SA18 |F13 GND |E13 (reserved)
B14 IORC# |A14 SA17 |F14 (reserved) |E14 (reserved)
B15 DACK3# |A15 SA16 |F15 BE3# |E15 GND
B16 DRQ3 |A16 SA15 |F16 ACCESS KEY |E16 ACCESS KEY
B17 DACK1# |A17 SA14 |F17 BE2# |E17 BE1#
B18 DRQ1 |A18 SA13 |F18 BE0# |E18 LA31#
B19 REFRESH# |A19 SA12 |F19 GND |E19 GND
B20 BCLK |A20 SA11 |F20 +5V |E20 LA30#
B21 IRQ7 |A21 SA10 |F21 LA29# |E21 LA28#
B22 IRQ6 |A22 SA9 |F22 GND |E22 LA27#
B23 IRQ5 |A23 SA8 |F23 LA26# |E23 LA25#
B24 IRQ4 |A24 SA7 |F24 LA24# |E24 GND
B25 IRQ3 |A25 SA6 |F25 ACCESS KEY |E25 ACCESS KEY
B26 DACK2# |A26 SA5 |F26 LA16 |E26 LA15
B27 T/C |A27 SA4 |F27 LA14 |E27 LA13
B28 BALE |A28 SA3 |F28 +5V |E28 LA12
B29 +5V |A29 SA2 |F29 +5V |E29 LA11
B30 OSC |A30 SA1 |F30 GND |E30 GND
B31 GND |A31 SA0 |F31 LA10 |E31 LA9
|H1 LA8 |G1 LA7
D1 M16# |C1 SBHE# |H2 LA6 |G2 GND
D2 IO16# |C2 LA23 |H3 LA5 |G3 LA4
D3 IRQ10 |C3 LA22 |H4 +5V |G4 LA3
D4 IRQ11 |C4 LA21 |H5 LA2 |G5 GND
D5 IRQ12 |C5 LA20 |H6 ACCESS KEY |G6 ACCESS KEY
D6 IRQ15 |C6 LA19 |H7 D16 |G7 D17
D7 IRQ14 |C7 LA18 |H8 D18 |G8 D19
D8 DACK0# |C8 LA17 |H9 GND |G9 D20
D9 DRQ0 |C9 MRDC# |H10 D21 |G10 D22
D10 DACK5# |C10 MWTC# |H11 D23 |G11 GND
D11 DRQ5 |C11 SD8 |H12 D24 |G12 D25
D12 DACK6# |C12 SD9 |H13 GND |G13 D26
D13 DRQ6 |C13 SD10 |H14 D27 |G14 D28
D14 DACK7# |C14 SD11 |H15 ACCESS KEY |G15 ACCESS KEY
D15 DRQ7 |C15 SD12 |H16 D29 |G16 GND
D16 +5V |C16 SD13 |H17 +5V |G17 D30
D17 MASTER16# |C17 SD14 |H18 +5V |G18 D31
D18 GND |C18 SD15 |H19 MAKx |G19 MREQx
VESA Standard Feature Connector
pin assignment pin assignment
1 PB 2 PG
3 PR 4 PI
5 SB 6 SG
7 SR 8 SI
9 Dot Clock 10 Blank
11 HSync 12 VSync
13 GND 14 GND
15 GND 16 GND
17 Ext Video Sel 18 Ext Sync Sel
19 Ext DotClock Sel20 N/C
21 GND 22 GND
23 GND 24 GND
25 N/C 26 N/C
Null Modem:
Connector 1 to Connector 2
DTR DSR/DCD
DSR/DCD DTR
RTS CTS
CTS RTS
TXD RXD
RXD TXD
GND GND
30 pin Fast Page Mode SIMM 256kx8 256kx9 1Mx8 1Mx9 4Mx8 4Mx9
pin assignment|pin assignment|pin assignment|pin assignment
1 Vcc |9 Gnd |17 A8 |25 DQ7
2 -CAS |10 DQ2 |18 A9 |26 QP
3 DQ0 |11 A4 |19 A10 |27 -RAS
4 A0 |12 A5 |20 DQ5 |28 -CASP
5 A1 |13 DQ3 |21 -WE |29 DP
6 DQ1 |14 A6 |22 Gnd |30 Vcc
7 A2 |15 A7 |23 DQ6
8 A3 |16 DQ4 |24 N/C
Notes:
QP, CASP and DP are N/C on all x8 bit modules
a9 is a N/C on 256k modules
a10 is a N/C on 256k and 1M modules
72 pin Fast Page Mode SIMM 256k/512k/1M/2M/4M/8M x 32/36 bit
pin assignment|pin assignment|pin assignment|pin assignment
1 Gnd |19 A10 |37 MP1 |55 DQ11
2 DQ0 |20 DQ4 |38 MP3 |56 DQ27
3 DQ16 |21 DQ20 |39 Gnd |57 DQ12
4 DQ1 |22 DQ5 |40 -CAS0 |58 DQ28
5 DQ17 |23 DQ21 |41 -CAS2 |59 Vcc
6 DQ2 |24 DQ6 |42 -CAS3 |60 DQ29
7 DQ18 |25 DQ22 |43 -CAS1 |61 DQ13
8 DQ3 |26 DQ7 |44 -RAS0 |62 DQ30
9 DQ19 |27 DQ23 |45 -RAS1 |63 DQ14
10 Vcc |28 A7 |46 N/C |64 DQ31
11 N/C |29 N/C |47 -WE |65 DQ15
12 A0 |30 Vcc |48 N/C |66 N/C
13 A1 |31 A8 |49 DQ8 |67 PD1
14 A2 |32 A9 |50 DQ24 |68 PD2
15 A3 |33 -RAS3 |51 DQ9 |69 PD3
16 A4 |34 -RAS2 |52 DQ25 |70 PD4
17 A5 |35 MP2 |53 DQ10 |71 N/C
18 A6 |36 MP0 |54 DQ26 |72 Gnd
Notes:
MP0,MP1,MP2,MP3 are N/C on all x32 bit modules
a9 is a N/C on 256k and 512k modules
a10 is a N/C on 256k, 512k, 1M and 4M modules
RAS1/RAS3 are N/C on 256k, 1M and 4M modules
SCSI Connector Pinouts (Single Ended) IDC-50 Male
pin assignment|pin assignment|pin assignment|pin assignment
01 GND |02 -DB0 |27 GND |28 GND
03 GND |04 -DB1 |29 GND |30 GND
05 GND |06 -DB2 |31 GND |32 -ATN
07 GND |08 -DB3 |33 GND |34 GND
09 GND |10 -DB4 |35 GND |36 -BSY
11 GND |12 -DB5 |37 GND |38 -ACK
13 GND |14 -DB6 |39 GND |40 -RST
15 GND |16 -DB7 |41 GND |42 -MSG
17 GND |18 -DBP |43 GND |44 -SEL
19 GND |20 GND |45 GND |46 -C/D
21 GND |22 GND |47 GND |48 -REQ
23 GND |24 GND |49 GND |50 -I/O
25 (open) |26 TERMPWR
SCSI Connector Pinouts (Differential) IDC-50 Male
pin assignment|pin assignment|pin assignment|pin assignment
01 (open) |02 GND |27 GND |28 GND
03 +DB0 |04 -DB0 |29 +ATN |30 -ATN
05 +DB1 |06 -DB1 |31 GND |32 GND
07 +DB2 |08 -DB2 |33 +BSY |34 -BSY
09 +DB3 |10 -DB3 |35 +ACK |36 -ACK
11 +DB4 |12 -DB4 |37 +RST |38 -RST
13 +DB5 |14 -DB5 |39 +MSG |40 -MSG
15 +DB6 |16 -DB6 |41 +SEL |42 -SEL
17 +DB7 |18 -DB7 |43 +C/D |44 -C/D
19 +DBP |20 -DBP |45 +REQ |46 -REQ
21 DIFFSENS |22 GND |47 +I/O |48 -I/O
23 GND |24 GND |49 GND |50 GND
25 TERMPWR |26 TERMPWR
PCI Cards Universal/3.3V/5V and 32/64 bit
pin assignment |pin assignment |pin assignment |pin assignment
B1 -12V |A1 TRST# |B48 AD[10] |A48 Ground
B2 TCK |A2 +12V |B49 Ground |A49 AD[09]
B3 Ground |A3 TMS |B50 (KEYWAY2) |A50 (KEYWAY2)
B4 TDO |A4 TDI |B51 (KEYWAY2) |A51 (KEYWAY2)
B5 +5V |A5 +5V |B52 AD[08] |A52 C/BE[0]#
B6 +5V |A6 INTA# |B53 AD[07] |A53 +3.3V
B7 INTB# |A7 INTC# |B54 +3.3V |A54 AD[06]
B8 INTD# |A8 +5V |B55 AD[05] |A55 AD[04]
B9 PRSNT1# |A9 reserved |B56 AD[03] |A56 Ground
B10 reserved |A10 +Vi/o |B57 Ground |A57 AD[02]
B11 PRSNT2# |A11 reserved |B58 AD[01] |A58 AD[00]
B12 (KEYWAY1) |A12 (KEYWAY1) |B59 Vi/o |A59 +Vi/o
B13 (KEYWAY1) |A13 (KEYWAY1) |B60 ACK64# |A60 REQ64#
B14 reserved |A14 reserved |B61 +5V |A61 +5V
B15 Ground |A15 RST# |B62 +5V |A62 +5V
B16 CLK |A16 Vi/o |B63 reserved |A63 Ground
B17 Ground |A17 VNT# |B64 Ground |A64 C/BE[7]#
B18 REQ# |A18 Ground |B65 C/BE[6]# |A65 C/BE[5]#
B19 +Vi/o |A19 reserved |B66 C/BE[4]# |A66 +Vi/o
B20 AD[31] |A20 AD[30] |B67 Ground |A67 PAR64
B21 AD[29] |A21 +3.3V |B68 AD[63] |A68 AD[62]
B22 Ground |A22 AD[28] |B69 AD[61] |A69 Ground
B23 AD[27] |A23 AD[26] |B70 +Vi/o |A70 AD[60]
B24 AD[25] |A24 Ground |B71 AD[59] |A71 AD[58]
B25 +3.3V |A25 AD[24] |B72 AD[57] |A72 Ground
B26 C/BE[3]# |A26 IDSEL |B73 Ground |A73 AD[56]
B27 AD[23] |A27 +3.3V |B74 AD[55] |A74 AD[54]
B28 Ground |A28 AD[22] |B75 AD[53] |A75 +Vi/o
B29 AD[21] |A29 AD[20] |B76 Ground |A76 AD[52]
B30 AD[19] |A30 Ground |B77 AD[51] |A77 AD[50]
B31 +3.3V |A31 AD[18] |B78 AD[49] |A78 Ground
B32 AD[17] |A32 AD[16] |B79 +Vi/o |A79 AD[48]
B33 C/BE[2]# |A33 +3.3V |B80 AD[47] |A80 AD[46]
B34 Ground |A34 FRAME# |B81 AD{45] |A81 Ground
B35 IRDY# |A35 Ground |B82 Ground |A82 AD[44]
B36 +3.3V |A36 TRDY# |B83 AD[43] |A83 AD[42]
B37 DEVSEL# |A37 Ground |B84 AD[41] |A84 +Vi/o
B38 Ground |A38 STOP# |B85 Ground |A85 AD[40]
B39 LOCK# |A39 +3.3V |B86 AD[39] |A86 AD[38]
B40 PERR# |A40 SDONE |B87 AD[37] |A87 Ground
B41 +3.3V |A41 SBO# |B88 +Vi/o |A88 AD[36]
B42 SERR# |A42 Ground |B89 AD[35] |A89 AD[34]
B43 +3.3V |A43 PAR |B90 AD[33] |A90 Ground
B44 C/BE[1]# |A44 AD[15] |B91 Ground |A91 AD[32]
B45 AD[14] |A45 +3.3V |B92 reserved |A92 reserved
B46 Ground |A46 AD[13] |B93 reserved |A93 Ground
B47 AD[12] |A47 AD11] |B94 Ground |A94 reserved
Notes:
Pins 63-94 exist on 64 bit PCI implementation only
KEYWAY1 exists on Universal and 3.3V boards, they are Ground on 5V boards
KEYWAY2 exists on Universal and 5V boards, they are Ground on 3.3V boards
+Vi/o is 3.3V on 3.3V boards, 5V on 5V boards, and define signal rails
on the Universal board.
(Still need to add MFM/RLL, VLB)
Q) 8.2 *Where are benchmark programs located. What do they mean?
Q) 8.3 What size should I set my DOS partitions to be?
[From: Mike Long <mike.long@analog.com>]
This depends on what cluster size you want. A smaller cluster size is
better, because a small file takes up a whole cluster if there is even
one byte in it; the leftover space is called "slack." If you have N
files on your drive, and your cluster size is S bytes, then you can
expect to lose N*S/2 bytes to slack space on the average.
The table below shows the maximum partition size to get clusters of a
given size. You cannot format a hard drive under DOS with a cluster
size less than 2K.
+-------------------+-----------+-------+
| Cluster size | Partition | FAT |
| | size | type |
+-------------------+-----------+-------+
| 2K (2048 bytes) | 32 MB | FAT12 |
| 2K (2048 bytes) | 128 MB | FAT16 |
| 4K (4096 bytes) | 256 MB | FAT16 |
| 8K (8192 bytes) | 512 MB | FAT16 |
| 16K (16384 bytes) | 1 GB | FAT16 |
| 32K (32768 bytes) | 2 GB | FAT16 |
| 64K (65536 bytes) | 4 GB | FAT16 |
+-------------------+-----------+-------+
Another consideration is backup. If you backup to tape, you should
have disk partitions smaller than the capacity of a single tape for
ease in backup.
Q) 8.4 Why won't my system boot from the hard drive?
If you can boot from a floppy and see the files on your hard drive,
then chances are there's something wrong with your MBR (Master Boot
Record) / partition table. The first thing you should try is: "FDISK
/MBR". This will fix the master boot record without effecting the
contents of your disk. If this doesn't work, the next thing to try is
verifying that you have your Primary DOS Partition set active. To do
this, enter "FDISK" and chose "Set active partition" (usually the
second option) then pick "Primary DOS Partition". Then exit and
reboot. This too will not effect the contents of your disk.
If neither of these things work, then the next thing to try is
reformatting your hard drive (FORMAT C: /SYS). Note that this will
erase all of the files on your hard drive, so back up anything you
want to save first!!! If all three of these suggestions fail, then
chances are you have a more serious problem.
Q) 8.5 How do I clean my computer?
Clean the outside with a damp (not wet) cloth with a mild dish washing
detergent after unplugging the system. Let it dry completely before
plugging your system in. Do not clean the inside - computer
components are not susceptible to common house hold dust. Unless you
have special equipment, you will more likely cause more harm than help
to your computer if you try.
Q) 8.6 *What OS's are available for the PC? Which are free?
Q) 8.7 *How can I transfer files from my PC to a Unix system?
Q) 8.8 Why doesn't my new device work as fast as it should?
The performance of individual components in your system are highly
dependent the rest of your system. For instance, the transfer rate of
drives, usually measured in megabytes per second, can depend on the
drive controller, bus type and OS. Video card speed, sometime
measured in Winmarks, highly depends on the speed of your main CPU as
well as the OS. When ever you see a statement on the speed of the
device, be sure to check the small print to determine what type of
system and under what conditions the speed was measured. Don't be
fooled by benchmark numbers. Another important corollary of this is
*never* post benchmarks - they offer little to no information for
comparison with other systems. Benchmarks are only useful for
comparison purposes when run in a controlled environment, and even
then to a limited degree.
Q) 8.9 My drive lists a MTBF of 300,000 hours. Will it really last 34 years?
No, Mean Time Between Failure is a statistical term. A closer
interpretation is that if you had 300,000 drives, you can expect to
replace one every hour.
Q) 8.10 How do I find pin 1 on my chip/card/cable/connector?
Pin 1 is always marked in one way or another to avoid confusion due to
symmetry (after which known numbering schemes can be used). The most
important thing to note is that the orientation of the letters or
numbers printed on the chip have absolutely nothing to do with the
actual orientation of the pins. Never assume that all chips should be
readable from the same angle!
The most obvious marking for pin 1 is a small number '1'. The first
thing you should do is look very carefully for it. Ribbon cables are
often marked with a blue or red stripe on pin 1. Some chips are
marked with a dot, notch or small angled cut in the material just
above pin 1. Rectangular chips are usually marked with a notch on one
of ends; the first pin counter clockwise from this notch is pin 1.
Q) 8.11 I've run out of power connectors, what can I do?
Assuming your power suply is actually strong enough to power all of
your devices, you can pick up a Y-adapter at your local Radio Shack.
===============
Ralph Valentino (ralf@chpc.org) (ralf@wpi.wpi.edu)
Hardware Engineer, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Center for High Performance Computing, Marlborough MA
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From: ralf@chpc.org (Ralph Valentino)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.comm,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.* Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Part 4/4
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc
Date: 18 Jan 1994 16:37:57 GMT
Organization: Center For High Performance Computing
Lines: 927
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Expires: 11 Feb 1994 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <2hh395$ovk@bigboote.WPI.EDU>
Reply-To: ralf@wpi.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: wpi.wpi.edu
Summary: This is a monthly posting containing a list of Frequently
Asked Questions (and their answers) pertaining to hardware
and IBM PC clones. It should be read by anyone who wishes
to post to any group in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.*
hierarchy.
Originator: ralf@wpi.WPI.EDU
Archive-name: pc-hardware-faq/part4
Last-modified: 1994/01/10
Version: 1.0
S) 9.0 References
Q) 9.1 *What other FAQ's are out there?
Q) 9.2 What do the industry acronyms stand for?
[From ralf@wpi.wpi.edu (Ralph Valentino)]
This is a list of 250+ acronyms which commonly come up in discussion
of hardware. It does not contain abbreviations or names that don't
stand for anything, nor does it attempt to explain exactly what the
technology does, where it can be found, nor even how to use it in a
sentence. So, is it completely useless? Well, sometimes just knowing
what an acronym stands for is enough to tell you what people are
talking about or where to go to get more information about it.
If anyone has any additions, comments, or corrections, please forward
them to me directly. Keep in mind that I have tried to avoid software
topics except where they overlap with hardware ones, so don't bother
telling me what BASIC stands for as it is outside the scope of this
list.
AC Alternating Current
AE Applications Engineer
AI Artificial Intelligence
ALU Arithmetic-Logic Unit
AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
AMI American Megatrends Inc.
ANSI American National Standards Institute
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASPI Advanced SCSI Programming Interface
ATDM Asynchronous Time Division Multiplexing
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
BBS Bulletin Board System
BCC Block Check Character
BCD Binary Coded Decimal
BE Back End
BiCMOS Bipolar Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
BIOS Basic Input / Output System
BNC
BPS/bps Bytes/bits Per Second
BSC Binary Synchronous Communications
BSD Berkeley Standard Distribution
CAM Content Addressable Memory
CAS Column Address Strobe
CBX Common Branch eXtender
CCD Charge Coupled Device
CCITT Consultative Committee of International Telephony and Telegraphy
CD Carrier Detect
CDROM Compact Disk Read Only Memory
CGA Color Graphics Array
CISC Complex Instruction-Set Computer
CLA Carry Lookahead Adder
CMOS Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
CP/M Control Program / Monitor
CPI Clocks Per Instruction
CPU Central Processing Unit
CR Carriage Return
CRC Cyclical redundancy check
CRQ Command Response Queue
CRT Cathode Ray Tube
CS Chip Select
CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple-Access
CSMA/CD Carrier Sense Multiple-Access with Collision Detect
CSR Command Status Register
CTS Clear To Send
DAT Digital Audio Tape
DC Direct Current
DCD Data Carrier Detect
DCE Data Circuit-terminating Equipment
DEC Digital Equipment Corporation
DES Data Encryption Standard
DIN Deutsche Industrie Norm
DIP Dual-In-line Package
DIS Draft International Standard
DMA Direct Memory Access
DOS Disk Operating System
DPE Data Parity Error
DPSK Differential Phase Shift Keying
DRAM Dynamic Random Access Memory
DSP Digital Signal Processor
DSR Data Set Ready
DTE Data Terminating Equipment
DTMF Dual-Tone MultiFrequency
DTR Data Terminal Ready
EBCDIC Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
ECC Error Correction Code
ECL Emitter-Coupled Logic
ECU EISA Configuration Utility
EEPROM Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EGA Enhanced Graphics Array
EIA Electronic Industries Association
EISA Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture
EMI Electro-Magnetic Interference
EMF Electro-Magnetic Force
EMS Expanded Memory Specification
EOF End Of File
EOL End Of Line
EPROM Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
ESD Electro-Static Discharge
ESDI Enhanced Small Devices Interface
FAT File Allocation Table
FCC Federal Communications Commission
FDDI Fiber Distributed Data Interface
FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing
FDX Full-Duplex Transmission
FE Front End
FF Form Feed
FIFO First-In First-Out
FILO First-In Last-Out (same as LIFO)
FM Frequency Modulation
FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array
FSF Free Software Foundation
FSK Frequency Shifty Keying
FTP File Transfer Program
GAS Gallium Arsenide
GFLOPS Billions of FLOating Point Operations Per Second ("GigaFlops")
GNU Gnu's Not Unix
GUI Graphical User Interface
HDD Hard Disk Drive
HDX Half-Duplex Transmission
HPFS High Performance File System
I/O Input / Output
IBM International Business Machines Corp.
IC Integrated Circuit
IDC Insulation Displacement Connector
IDE Integrated Device Electronics
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
IMP Interface Message Processor
IPC InterProcess Communication
IRQ Interrupt ReQuest
ISA Industry Standard Architecture
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
ISO International Standards Organization
LAN Local Area Network
LAPM Link Access Procedure M
LCD Liquid Crystal Display
LED Light Emitting Diode
LF Line Feed
LIM Lotus/Intel/Micosoft Expanded Memory Manager Specification
LRU Least-Recently Used
LSB/lsb Least Significant Byte/bit
LSI Large Scale Integration
MAN Metropolitan Area Network
MB/Mb Mega Bytes/bits
MBR Master Boot Record
MCA Micro Channel Architecture
MCGA
MCM Multi-Chip Module
MFLOPS Millions of FLOating Point Operations per Second ("MegaFlops")
MFM Modified Frequency Modulated
MHz MegaHertz
MIDI Musical Instrument Data Interface
MIMD Multiple-Instruction Multiple-Data
MIPS Millions of Instructions per Second
MISD Multiple-Instruction Single Data
MMU Memory Management Unit
MNP Microcom Network Protocol
MODEM MOdulator / DEModulator
MOPS Millions of Operations Per Second
MOS Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
MP MultiProcessor
MPP Massively Parallel Processor
MSB/msb Most Significant Byte/bit
MSDOS Microsoft Disk Operating System
MSI Medium Scale Integration
MTBF Mean Time Between Failure
N/C No-Connect
NBS National Bureau of Standards
NEMA National Electrical Manufacturers Association
NFS Network File System
NFU Not-Frequently Used
NMI Non-Maskable Interrupt
NMOS Negatively doped Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
NOP No OPeration
NRU Not-Recently Used
NSF National Science Foundation
NVRAM NonVolatile Random Access Memory
OCR Optical Character Recognition
OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
OS Operating System
OSF Open Software Foundation
PAL/PLA Programmable Array Logic (Logic Array)
PB Push Button
PBX Private Branch eXtender
PC Personal Computer, Program Counter
PCB Printed Circuit Board
PCI Peripheral Component Interface
PCM Pulse Code Modulation
PE Processor Element
PFF Page Fault Frequency
PGA Pin Grid Array
PIC Programmable Interrupt Controller
PIO Programmed Input/Output
PLCC Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier
PLL Phase Locked Loop
PMOS Positively doped Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
POST Power On Self Test
PROM Programmable Read-Only Memory
PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network
PTE Page Table Entry
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QFP Quad-FlatPack
QIC Quarter Inch Cartridge
RAID Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks
RAM Random Access Memory
RAMDAC Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter
RAS Row Address Strobe
RCA Radio Corporation of America
RCC Routing Control Center
RFC Request For Comments
RFI Radio Frequency Interference
RI Ring Indicator
RISC Reduced Instruction-Set Computer
RLL Run Length Limited
RMM Read Mostly Memory (same as EPROM)
RMS Root Mean Squared
RMW Read Modify Write
ROM Read-Only Memory
RPC Remote Procedure Call
RPM Rotations Per Minute
RTC Real Time Clock
RTS Request To Send
SAM Sequential Access Memory
SASI Shugart Associates Standard Interface
SCSI Small Computer Systems Interface
SDLC Synchronous Data Link Control
SDLC Synchronous Data Link Control
SIMD Single-Instruction Multiple-Data
SIMM Single Inline Memory Module
SIPP Single Inline Pinned Package
SISD Single-Instruction Single-Data
SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol
SMD Surface Mount Device
SNA System Network Architecture
SNR Signal to Noise Ratio
SO/SOL Small OutLine
SOIC Small Outline Integrated Circuit
SPOOL Simultaneous Peripheral Operation On Line
SPT Sectors Per Track
SRAM Static Random Access Memory
STDM Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
STN Super Twisted Nematic
STU Streaming Tape Unit
SVGA Super Video Graphics Array
TCM Trellis Code Modulation
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol
TDM Time Division Multiplexing
TI Texas Instruments
TLB Translation-Lookaside Buffer
TPI Tracks Per Inch
TSR Terminate and Stay Resident
TTL Transistor-Transistor Logic
TUV Technischer Ueberwachuags Verein
UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
UDP User Datagram Protocol
UMB Upper Memory Block
UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply
USL Unix System Labs
UUCP Unix to Unix Copy Program
VCR Video Cassette Recorder
VESA Video Enhanced Standards Association
VGA Video Graphics Array
VLB VESA Local Bus
VLIW Very Long Instruction Word
VLSI Very Large Scale Integration
VM Virtual Memory
VME Versa Module Eurocard
VRAM Video Random Access Memory
VTR Video Tape Recorder
WAN Wide Area Network
WATS Wide Area Telephone Service
WD Western Digital
WORM Write-Once Read-Many
WS Wait State
XGA
XMS Extended Memory Specification
XOR Exclusive-Or
ZIF Zero Insertion Force
Q) 9.3 Where can I get the ISA/EISA/VLB/PCI/etc specs?
You can get the PCI Local Bus Specification from:
PCI Special Interest Group
M/S HF3-15A
5200 NE Elam Young Parkway
Hillsboro, OR 97124-6497
Phone: (503) 696-2000
Fax: (503) 693-0920
Q) 9.4 What books are available for the PC architecture?
Edward Solari
_ISA & EISA_ Theory and Operation
Annabooks, San Diego CA USA
ISBN 0-929392-15-9
This is an excellent book on the EISA and ISA architectures.
Everything you need to know to make your own card, from timing to ECU
config files.
Tom Shanley
_EISA System Architecture_
MindShare, Inc, Richardson, TX USA
ISBN 1-881609-03-0
This book is good for an overview of the EISA and, in part, ISA
systems. It doesn't go into enough detail to design boards from, but,
as a quote from the sleeve says "The co-ops in the group have found
them to be especially useful."
[From: cls@truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron Spitzer):
Edward Solari
_AT Bus Design_
Annabooks, San Diego CA USA
ISBN 0-929392-08-6
This book describes the expansion slot which appeared in IBM's
Personal Computer AT. This bus is now known as the Industry Standard
Architecture Bus, or just ISA. It gives enough functional and timing
detail for the hardware designer to ensure a new Adapter's
compatibility. It does not discuss any of the defacto-standard
Adapters, peripherals, or BIOS features, and gives only an overview of
the memory and IO layout. The timing details are for the nominal 8
MHz bus clock. Recent practice of drastically increasing this clock
rate is not discussed.
_EISA Specification_
BCPR Services Inc.
POB 11137
Spring TX 77391
(713)251-4832
This book *specifies* the Extended ISA. The expansion slot and
motherboard IO deviced are described. Also, a file format is defined
for describing the configuration of an EISA-compatible Adapter.
Q) 9.5 What's the phone number for...
[From: zeos@zeos.com]
This list of industry phone numbers is provided as a service to the net
community. It is not meant to be complete by any means, but if you have any
suggestions for additions, or if you find any errors which should be corrected,
please feel free to email me at support@zeos.com. This list will be reposted
periodically with the appropriate updates.
Thank you to all who have sent me corrections/additions.
Currently posted to: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware, biz.zeos.general
Latest modification date: November 1, 1993
*=Updated/corrected/added since last modification
(#)
3Com ...................... BBS ................... 408-980-8204
3Com ...................... CardFacts ............. 408-727-7021
3Com ...................... T/S ................... 800-876-3266
(A)
Acer Technologies Corp..... Tech Support .......... 408-922-0333
Actix Systems ............. Sales ................. 800-927-5557
Actix Systems ............. Service ............... 408-986-1625
Adaptec ................... BBS ................... 408-945-7727
Adaptec ................... General ............... 800-959-7274
Adaptec ................... Tech Support .......... 408-945-2550
Ahead Systems ............. General ............... 415-623-0900
*A.I.R. .................... Voice ................. 408-428-0800
*A.I.R. .................... Fax ................... 408-428-0950
ALR ....................... T/S ................... 714-458-1952
Altima .................... T/S ................... 800-356-9990
Altos Computer Systems .... General ............... 408-258-6787
Always Technology ......... Sales/Tech Support .... 818-597-1400
AMD ....................... Literature ............ 800-222-9323
AMD ....................... Main .................. 800-538-8450
AMD ....................... Tech Support .......... 800-292-9263
Amdek ..................... T/S ................... 800-722-6335
American Power ............ T/S ................... 800-788-2208
American Megatrends (AMI) . BBS ................... 404-246-8782 V.32bis
American Megatrends (AMI) . T/S ................... 404-246-8600
AMIPRO .................... Cust. Service ......... 404-399-5505
AMIPRO (Upgrade to 3.0) ... Upgrading ............. 800-872-3387
Andataco .................. C/S ................... 800-443-9191
Andataco .................. Fax ................... 619-453-9294
APCUG (Association of
PC User Groups) .......... BBS ................... 408-439-9367
Appian .................... Main .................. 408-730-5400
Appian .................... Tech Support .......... 800-422-7369
*Apple Computer ............ Fax Back .............. 800-SOS-APPL
*Apple Computer ............ T/S USA Only .......... 800-SOS-APPL
*Areal Technology Inc ...... General ............... 408-436-6800
*Artisoft .................. BBS ................... 602-884-8648
*Artisoft .................. T/S ................... 602-670-7000
*Artisoft .................. Sales ................. 800-TINY-RAM
Ashton-Tate ............... BBS ................... 213-324-2188
AST Research .............. T/S ................... 800-727-1278
AST Research .............. BBS ................... 714-727-4723
AST Research .............. BBS(>9600) ............ 714-727-4132
Atari ..................... General ............... 408-745-2000
AT&T ...................... Tech Support .......... 800-247-1212
AT&T Support .............. BBS ................... 908-769-6397
ATI Technologies .......... Compuserve ............ 74740,667
*ATI Technologies .......... Compuserve ............ GO ATITECH-
*ATI Technologies .......... Customer Service ...... 905-882-2626
*ATI Technologies .......... BBS ................... 905-764-9404
*ATI Technologies .......... Fax ................... 905-882-2620
*ATI Technologies .......... Sales ................. 905-882-2600
*ATI Technologies .......... Tech Support .......... 905-756-0711
Award (Bios) .............. BBS ................... 408-370-3139
Award (Bios) .............. Tech Support .......... 408-370-7979
(B)
Boca ...................... T/S ................... 407-241-8088
Borland ................... Automated Support ..... 800-524-8420
Borland ................... BBS ................... 408-439-9096
Borland ................... Compuserve ............ GO BORLAND
Borland ................... Fax Back .............. 800-822-4269
Borland ................... Sales ................. 800-331-0877
Borland ................... T/S ................... 408-438-5300
Borland ................... T/S ................... 800-252-5547
Box Hill Systems .......... General ............... 800-727-3863
Brother ................... T/S ................... 800-284-4357
Brown Bag Software ........ BBS ................... 408-371-7654
BusLogic .................. Tech Support .......... 408-492-9090
*BusLogic .................. Tech Support .......... 408-988-7338
*BusLogic .................. Tech Support FAX ...... 408-492-1542
BusLogic .................. BBS ................... 408-492-1984
Byte (magazine) ........... BBS ................... 617-861-9764
(C)
Cabletron Systems ......... T/S & Sales ........... 603-332-9400
Calcomp ................... T/S ................... 800-CAL-COMP
Canon ..................... Main Office ........... 516-488-6700
Canon ..................... Tech Support .......... 800-423-2366
Cardinal (Techs) .......... Tech Support .......... 717-293-3135
Cardinal 14.4 modem ....... Tech Support .......... 717-293-3124
CD Publishing Corp ........ General ............... 800-333-7565
CD Publishing Corp ........ General ............... 604-874-1430
CD Publishing Corp ........ FAX ................... 604-874-1431
CD-ROM Inc ................ General ............... 303-526-7600
CD-ROM Inc ................ Fax ................... 303-526-7395
Central Point Software .... BBS ................... 503-690-6650
Central Point Software .... T/S ................... 503-690-8080
Central Point Software .... PC Tools Tech Support . 503-690-8090
Chicony ................... Tech Support .......... 714-771-9067
Ciprico ................... General ............... 612-559-2034
*Cirrus .................... BBS ................... 510-440-9080
Citrix .................... General ............... 305-755-0559
Citrix .................... General ............... 800-437-7503
Citrix .................... Fax ................... 305-341-6880
CMS Enhancement, Inc. ..... T/S ................... 714-222-6000
*Colorado Memory Systems ... BBS ................... 303-635-0650 (8N1)
Colorado Memory Systems ... Tech Support .......... 303-635-1500
Commodore Business Mach.... Tech Support .......... 215-431-9100
Compaq .................... BBS ................... 713-378-1418
Compaq .................... General ............... 713-370-0670
Compaq .................... Tech Support .......... 800-345-1518
Compaq .................... T/S ................... 800-888-5858
Compati ................... Tech Support .......... 815-756-3411
Compuadd .................. Tech Support .......... 800-456-3116
CompUSA ................... General ............... 703-749-4488
CompuServ Info. Serv. ..... General ............... 800-848-8199
Computer Peripherals Inc .. BBS ................... 805-499-9646
Computer Peripherals Inc .. Tech Support .......... 805-499-5751
Computone Corp. ........... BBS ................... 404-343-9737
Computone Corp. ........... BBS ................... 404-664-1210
Computone Corp. ........... General ............... 404-475-2725
Computone Corp. ........... Tech Support .......... 404-475-2725 x250
Conner Peripherals ........ BBS ................... 408-456-4415 V.32
Conner Peripherals ........ Fax Back .............. 408-456-4903
Conner Peripherals ........ Tech Support .......... 408-456-3388
Conner Peripherals ........ Tech Support .......... 800-421-1879
Conner Peripherals ........ Tech Support .......... 800-426-6637
Control Data Corp. (CDC) .. General ............... 612-851-4131
Core International ........ BBS ................... 407-241-2929
Core International ........ Tech Support .......... 407-997-6044
Corel ..................... General ............... 800-836-7274
CPI ....................... T/S ................... 800-235-7618
*Creative Labs ............. T/S ................... 405-742-6622
Crosstalk Communications .. BBS ................... 404-641-1803
CTX (monitors) ........... Repair Services ....... 800-289-2189
CYRIX ..................... General ............... 214-234-8387
CYRIX ..................... General ............... 800-FAS-MATH
CYRIX ..................... Technical Support ..... 800-848-2979 x325
CYRIX ..................... T/S ................... 800-GO-CYRIX
CYRIX ..................... T/S ................... 800-327-6284
(D)
Dallas (chip)............. Tech Support .......... 510-796-6100
Data Shield ............... T/S ................... 312-329-1601
Data Technology Corp ...... BBS ................... 408-942-4197
Data Technology Corp ...... Tech Support .......... 408-262-7700
Datapoint ................. General ............... 210-593-7000
Dell Computer ............. Customer Service ...... 800-624-9897
Dell Computer ............. Sales ................. 800-426-5150
Dell Computer ............. Tech Support .......... 800-624-9896
Dell Computer ............. BBS ................... 512-338-8528
Dell Computer ............. Tech Fax .............. 800-950-1329
Diamond ................... BBS 2400 baud.......... 408-730-1100
Diamond ................... BBS 9600 baud ......... 408-524-9301
Diamond ................... Fax ................... 408-773-8000
Diamond ................... Tech Support .......... 408-736-2000
Diconix ................... T/S ................... 513-259-3100
Digiboard Inc. ............ BBS ................... 612-943-0812
Digiboard Inc. ............ Tech Support .......... 612-943-9020
Digital Equip. Corp.(DEC) . General ............... 508-493-5111
Digital Research .......... Tech Support .......... 408-646-6464
Digitrend Systems Corp. ... General ............... 818-772-0190
Dilog ..................... General ............... 408-241-3192
Distr. Process Technology . Tech Support .......... 407-830-5522
DPT (Dist Process Tech) ... BBS ................... 407-831-6432
DPT (Dist Process Tech) ... General ............... 407-260-3566
DPT (Dist Process Tech) ... Tech Support .......... 407-830-5522
DTC ....................... Fax ................... 408-942-4052
DTC ....................... Fax Back .............. 408-942-4005
DTC ....................... General ............... 408-942-4000
Durant Technologies ....... T/S ................... 800-451-4813
Dysan Corp................. Tech Support .......... 408-988-3472
(E)
Eastman Kodak ............. T/S ................... 800-255-3434
Emerald Systems ........... T/S ................... 800-366-4349
Epson ..................... T/S ................... 800-922-8911
Epson ..................... Tech Support .......... 213-539-9955
Everex Systems ............ BBS ................... 510-438-4650
Everex Systems ............ Tech Support .......... 510-498-1115
Exabyte Direct Srvce Admn . Fax ................... 303-447-7199
Exabyte ................... T/S ................... 800-445-7736
(F)
Fifth Generation Systems .. BBS ................... 504-295-3344
Fifth Generation Systems .. T/S ................... 800-766-7283
Fifth Generation Systems .. T/S: Mace, Fastback ... 800-873-4384
Flashllink ................ BBS ................... 717-293-3074
FlashTek .................. BBS ................... 208-883-3859
FlashTek .................. Email ................. flashtek@proto.com
FlashTek .................. England ............... 44-476-74108
FlashTek .................. General ............... 208-882-7275
FlashTek .................. Orders ................ 800-397-7310
FreeLance ................. Cust Support .......... 800-223-1662
Fujitsu America, Inc. ..... Tech Support .......... 800-826-6112
Fujitsu America ........... T/S ................... 408-432-1300
Future Domain ............. Tech Support .......... 714-253-0400
Future Domain ............. Update Center ......... 800-879-7599
(G)
Gateway ................... General ............... 800-846-2000
Gateway ................... Tech Support .......... 800-846-2301
Gateway ................... T/S ................... 714-553-1555
Gazelle Systems ........... T/S: Optune ........... 800-233-0383
Genoa ..................... BBS ................... 408-943-1231
Genoa ..................... Tech Support .......... 408-432-9090
Genovation ................ General ............... 714-833-3355
Genovation ................ Fax ................... 714-833-0322
GeoWorks .................. T/S ................... 415-644-3456
Gibson Research ........... BBS ................... 714-362-8848
Gibson Research ........... Sales-T/S: Spinwrite .. 714-362-8800
Goldstar .................. T/S ................... 800-777-1192
Goldstar .................. Tech Support .......... 408-432-1331
Gravis .................... Tech Support .......... 604-431-1807
Gravis .................... BBS ................... 604-431-5927
(H)
HardDrives Intl............ Sales? ................ 800-998-8093
Hayes ..................... T/S ................... 404-441-1617
Hayes Public BBS .......... BBS ................... 404-446-6336
Hayes On-line ............. BBS (product info) .... 800-874-2937
Headstart ................. T/S ................... 800-722-6224
Hercules Computer Tech. ... BBS ................... 510-623-7034
Hercules Computer Tech. ... Tech Support .......... 510-623-6030
Hewlett-Packard Co. ....... Tech Support .......... 800-858-8867
Hewlett-Packard Co. ....... T/S ................... 415-540-0749
Hitachi ................... T/S ................... 224-785-9770
Houston Instruments ....... T/S ................... 800-444-3425
Hyundai Electronics ....... Tech Support .......... 800-234-3553
(I)
i-link .................... General (Germany) ..... +4930-216-20-48
i-link .................... email (Germany) ....... info@ilink.de
IBM PC Users Group ........ BBS ................... 404-988-2790
*Indelible Blue ............ General ............... 800-776-8284
*Indelible Blue ............ General ............... 919-878-9700
*Indelible Blue ............ Fax ................... 919-878-7479
Intel ..................... BBS ................... 503-645-6275 (8N1)
Intel ..................... Cust. Support/FaxBack.. 800-538-3373
Intel ..................... Fax ................... 800-458-6231
Intel ..................... Fax ................... 503-629-7580
Intuit .................... ....................... 800-624-8742
Iomega .................... T/S ................... 800-456-5522
Irma DCA .................. T/S ................... 404-740-0300
Irwin ..................... T/S ................... 800-421-1879
(K)
Kaypro .................... Tech Support .......... 619-481-3900
Kensington Microware ...... T/S ................... 800-535-4242
Keytronics ................ Tech Support .......... 800-262-6006
Kodiak Technology ......... Tech Support .......... 800-777-7704
Kodiak Technology ......... BBS ................... 408-452-0677
Kurta ..................... T/S ................... 800-645-8782
Kyocera Unison Inc......... General ............... 415-848-6680
(L)
LAN (magazine) ............ BBS ................... 415-267-7640
Leading Edge .............. Customer Service ...... 800-874-3340
Leading Edge .............. Tech Support .......... 800-245-9870
Lexmark ................... BBS ................... 606-232-5238
Lexmark ................... Fax ................... 606-232-2380
Lexmark ................... Voice ................. 606-232-3000
Logitech .................. BBS ................... 510-795-0408
Logitech .................. Tech Support .......... 510-795-8100
Lotus ..................... Cust. Support ......... 800-223-1662
Lotus Development ......... General ............... 617-577-8500
Lotus Tech Support ........ Support ............... 404-399-5505
(M)
Mace, Paul Software ....... BBS ................... 714-240-7459
Mace, Paul Software ....... Tech Support .......... 800-523-0258
Macronix ...California .... Tech Support ...only... 408-453-8088
Macronix .................. Tech Support .......... 800-468-4629
Magnavox .................. T/S ................... 800-722-6224
Maynard Electronics........ General................ 800-227-6296
Maxtor/Miniscribe ......... BBS ................... 303-678-2222
Maxtor/Miniscribe ......... General ............... 303-651-6000
Maxtor/Miniscribe ......... Tech Support .......... 800-356-5333
Maxtor .................... T/S ................... 800-2-MAXTOR
McAffee Assoc ............. BBS ................... 408-988-4004
MediaVision ............... Tech Support .......... 800-638-2807
MediaVision ............... BBS ................... 510-770-0527
Megahertz Corp. ........... T/S ................... 800-527-8677
Metheus ................... T/S ................... 503-690-1550
Microbotics ............... Tech Support .......... 214-437-5330
Micronet .................. General ............... 714-837-6033
Micronics ................. General ............... 415-651-2300
Micropolis Corp. .......... BBS ................... 818-709-3310
Micropolis Corp. .......... Tech Support .......... 818-709-3325
Microscience Int .......... Tech Support .......... 408-433-9898
DIRECT SUPPORT FOR MICROSOFT PRODUCTS
Microsoft ................. BBS ................... 206-646-9145
Microsoft ................. BBS 9600 .............. 206-936-6735
Microsoft Access .................................. 206-635-7050
Microsoft Basic PDS ............................... 206-635-7053
Microsoft C Compiler .............................. 206-635-7007
Microsoft COBOL ................................... 206-637-7096
Microsoft DOS 5 ................................... 206-646-5104
Microsoft DOS 5 recordings ........................ 206-646-5103
Microsoft Excel for Macintosh ..................... 206-635-7080
Microsoft Excel for Windows & Excel for OS/2 ...... 206-635-7070
Microsoft FORTRAN Compiler ........................ 206-635-7015
Microsoft LAN Manager for UNIX .................... 206-635-7021
Microsoft Macro Assembler ......................... 206-646-5109
Microsoft Mail for Windows & Mail for Macintosh ... 206-637-9307
Microsoft Money for Windows ....................... 206-635-7131
Microsoft Mouse, BallPoint, & Hardware ............ 206-637-7096
Microsoft Pascal .................................. 206-637-7096
Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows .................. 206-635-7145
Microsoft PowerPoint for Macintosh ................ 206-635-7145
Microsoft Profiler ................................ 206-635-7015
Microsoft Project for Windows and Macintosh ....... 206-635-7155
Microsoft Project for MS-DOS ...................... 206-635-7155
Microsoft Publisher for Windows ................... 206-635-7140
Microsoft Quick Assembler ......................... 206-635-7010
Microsoft QuickC Compiler ......................... 206-635-7010
Microsoft Test Tools for Windows .................. 206-635-7052
Microsoft Visual Basic Startup .................... 206-646-5105
Microsoft Windows Applications for OS/2 ver. 2.0 .. 206-635-7247
Microsoft Windows Environment ..................... 206-637-7098
Microsoft Windows Applications .................... 206-637-7099
Microsoft Word for Macintosh ...................... 206-635-7200
Microsoft Word for MS-DOS ......................... 206-635-7210
Microsoft Word for OS/2 ........................... 206-454-2030
Microsoft Word for Windows ........................ 206-462-9673
Microsoft Works for Macintosh ..................... 206-635-7160
Microsoft Works for MS-DOS ........................ 206-635-7150
Microsoft Works for Windows ....................... 206-635-7130
***** ALL OTHER PRODUCTS .......................... 206-454-2030
MICROSOFT STARTUP AND INSTALLATION SUPPORT
Microsoft LAN Manager Startup (first 30 days only). 206-635-7020
Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 (first 90 days only) ......... 206-646-5104
Microsoft QuickBASIC Startup ...................... 206-646-5101
Microsoft SQL Server Startup (first 30 days only).. 206-637-7095
Microsoft Visual Basic Startup .................... 206-646-5105
Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack .............. 206-637-9308
Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK)... 206-635-3329
FAST TIPS SERVICES
Microsoft Excel for Macintosh ..................... 206-635-7081
Microsoft Excel for Windows ....................... 206-635-7071
Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 .............................. 206-646-5103
Microsoft Project for Windows ..................... 206-635-7156
Microsoft Visual Basic ............................ 206-646-5107
Microsoft Windows ................................. 206-635-7245
Microsoft Word for Macintosh ...................... 206-635-7201
Microsoft Word for MS-DOS ......................... 206-635-7211
Microsoft Word for Windows ........................ 206-635-7231
INCREMENTAL FEE-BASED SUPPORT
Microsoft OnCall for Basic $2/min.................. 900-896-9999
Microsoft OnCall for Basic $20/call ............... 206-646-5106
Microsoft OnCall for MS-DOS $2/min................. 900-896-9000
Microsoft OnCall for MS-DOS $20/call .............. 206-646-5108
Microsoft OnCall for Visual Basic $2/min........... 900-896-9876
Microsoft OnCall for Visual Basic $20/call ........ 206-646-5106
Microsoft Network Support $175/call ............... 206-635-7022
Mitsubishi Inc. ........... T/S ................... 800-344-6352
Mitsubishi Inc............. Tech Support .......... 213-515-3993
Mitsumi ................... ................... 516-752-7730
Mountain Computer, Inc .... BBS ................... 408-438-2665
Mountain Computer, Inc .... General ............... 800-458-0300
Mountain Computer, Inc .... Tech Support .......... 408-438-7897
Mouse Systems ............. BBS ................... 510-683-0617
Mouse Systems ............. Tech Support .......... 510-656-1117
Mylex ..................... BBS ................... 510-793-3491
Mylex ..................... ....................... 800-776-9539
Mylex ..................... Technical Support ..... 510-796-6100
(N)
National Semiconductor .... BBS ................... 408-245-0671
National Design ........... ....................... 800-253-8831
*NCR ....................... Video Chip Support .... 800-543-9935
NEC ....................... T/S ................... 708-860-0335
NEC ....................... Tech Support ..fax..... 708-860-5475
*NEC ....................... Tech Support ..faxback. 800-366-0476
NEC ....................... Tech Support ..General. 800-388-8888
NEC ....................... Tech Support ..BBS..... 508-635-6328
NeXT Answers .............. Fax Back .............. 415-780-3990
NeXT Answers .............. automated email ....... nextanswers@next.com
Norton .................... Tech Support .......... 213-319-2020
Norton/Symantec ........... BBS ................... 408-973-9598
Novell .................... Tech Support .......... 800-526-5463
(O)
Okidata ................... T/S ................... 800-634-0089
Okidata ................... Tech Support .......... 609-235-2600
Olivetti Office USA ....... General ............... 201-526-8200
OMTI/Scientific Micro ..... Tech Support .......... 408-954-1633
Ontrack Computer Systems .. BBS ................... 612-937-0860
Ontrack Computer Systems .. Data Recovery ......... 800-872-2599
Ontrack Computer Systems .. Sales Dos utils ....... 800-752-1333
Ontrack Computer Systems .. Sales: Disk Manager ... 800-752-1333
Ontrack Computer Systems .. Tech Support .......... 612-937-2121
Orange Micro .............. T/S ................... 714-779-2772
Orchid Technology ......... BBS ................... 510-683-0327
Orchid Technology ......... General ............... 510-683-0300
Orchid Technology ......... Sales ................. 800-767-2443
Orchid Technology ......... Tech Support .......... 510-683-0323
(P)
Pacific Data Product ...... T/S ................... 619-597-3444
Packard Bell .............. Tech Support .......... 800-733-4411
Panasonic ................. T/S ................... 800-222-0584
Panasonic Communica'n Sys.. BBS ................... 201-863-7845
Panasonic Printers ........ Cust Support .......... 708-468-5440
Paradise .................. Tech Support .......... 800-832-4778
PC Power and Cooling ...... ....................... 800-722-6555
PC Power and Cooling ...... ....................... 619-931-5700
PCubid (CPU fans) ......... General ............... 916-338-1338
Perstore .................. BBS ................... 602-894-4605
Perstore .................. Tech Support .......... 602-894-4601
Phoenix (Bios) ............ Tech Support .......... 617-551-4000
PKWare (PKZip) ............ BBS ................... 414-354-8670
Plus Development .......... BBS ................... 408-434-1664
Plus Development .......... Tech Support ...Calif.. 800-826-8022
Plus Development .......... Tech Support .......... 900-740-4433
Practical Peripherals ..... T/S ................... 818-991-8200
Priam Systems ............. Tech Support .......... 408-954-8680
Prime Solutions ........... Tech Support Disk Tech. 800-847-5000
Princeton Graphics ........ T/S ................... 404-664-1010
ProComm Support ........... BBS ................... 314-474-8477
Programmer's Workshop ..... General ............... 800-336-1166
Programmer's Workshop ..... General ............... 216-494-8715
Programmer's Workshop ..... General ............... 216-494-5260
Proteon ................... T/S ................... 508-898-3100
Pure Data ................. T/S ................... 800-661-8210
(Q)
*QMS ....................... BBS ................... 205-633-3632
*QMS ....................... FAX ................... 205-633-3145
*QMS ....................... General ............... 205-633-4300
QNX ....................... T/S ................... 613-591-0941
Quantum ................... T/S ................... 408-894-4000
Quantum ................... T/S ................... 408-944-0410
Quarterdeck ............... BBS ................... 310-396-3904
Quarterdeck ............... BBS ................... 310-314-3227 V.32bis
Quarterdeck ............... Customer Service ...... 800-354-3222
Quarterdeck ............... Fax ................... 310-314-3217
Quarterdeck ............... Sales ................. 310-392-9851
Quarterdeck ............... Tech Support .......... 310-392-9701
Quarterdeck ............... Tech Support - Fax .... 310-399-3802
Quarterdeck ............... Tech Support DeskView.. 310-392-9851
Quarterdeck ............... Tech Support Manifest.. 310-392-9851
Quarterdeck ............... Tech Support - UK ..... +4471 973-0663
QIC Standards Inc ......... General ............... 805-963-3853
QIC Standards Inc ......... Fax ................... 805-962-1541
Quick Link II SW .......... General ..14.4 Modem .. 714-362-5800
(R)
Rancho Technology ......... Tech Support .......... 714-987-3966
RC Electronics ............ General ............... 714-375-3791
Ricoh Corp ................ General ............... 201-882-2000
(S)
S3 ........................ ................... 408-986-8144
Samsung Info. Syst......... BBS ................... 408-434-5684
Samsung Info. Syst......... Tech Support .......... 800-446-0262
Santa Cruz Operation (SCO). Tech Support .......... 800-347-4381
Sanyo Storage Products .... General ............... 714-724-1505
Seagate Technology ........ BBS ....USA............ 408-438-8771
Seagate Technology ........ BBS ....UK............. 44-628-478011
Seagate Technology ........ BBS ....Germany........ 49-89-140-9331
Seagate Technology ........ BBS ....Singapore...... 65-227-2217
Seagate Technology ........ General ............... 408-438-6550
Seagate Technology ........ Tech Support .......... 408-438-8222
Seagate Technology ........ Customer Service ...... 800-468-3472
Seagate Technology ........ Sales ................. 408-438-8111
Sharp ..................... T/S ................... 708-759-8555
Shugart ................... Tech Support .......... 714-770-1100
Silicon Valley Computers .. BBS ................... 415-967-8081
Silicon Valley Computers .. General ............... 415-967-1100
Softlogic Solutions ....... Tech S Disk Optimize .. 800-272-9900
Softronics ................ Fax ................... 719-548-1878
Softronics ................ T/S ................... 719-593-9550
Sony ...................... T/S ................... 408-944-4323
SMC ....................... BBS ................... 714-707-2481 V.32
SMC ....................... T/S ................... 800-992-4762
Specialix Inc ............. General ............... 408-378-7919
Specialix Inc ............. UK .................... 44-0-932-354254
SPSS ...................... Sales ................. 800-543-2185
SPSS ...................... Tech Support .......... 312-329-3410
SPSS ...................... BBS ................... 312-836-1900
Stac Electronics .......... Tech Support .......... 619-431-6712
Star (Printers) ........... T/S ................... 908-572-3300
STB Systems ............... General ............... 214-234-8750
STB Systems ............... Fax ................... 214-234-1306
STB Systems ............... BBS ................... 214-437-9615
Storage Dimensions ........ Tech S Speedstor ...... 408-395-2688
Summagraphics ............. T/S ................... 203-384-1344
Syquest ................... ....................... 415-226-4000
Syquest ................... BBS ................... 510-656-0473
Sysgen .................... T/S ................... 800-821-2151
(T)
Tandy Corp................. General ............... 817-390-3011
Tandy Corp................. Tech Support .......... 817-878-6875
Tatung Co. of America ..... Tech Support .......... 213-979-7055
Teac America, Inc. ........ Tech Support .......... 213-726-0303
Tech Data ................. Tech Support .......... 800-553-7977
Tech Data ................. BBS ................... 813-538-7090
Telebit Corp. ............. Tech Support .......... 800-835-3248
Telix Support ............. BBS ................... 416-439-9399
Texas Instruments ......... Tech Support .......... 512-250-7407
TOPS Support .............. BBS ................... 415-769-8874
Toshiba America ........... BBS ................... 714-837-4408
Toshiba America ........... Tech Support .......... 800-999-4273
Trantor ................... BBS ................... 510-656-5159
Trantor ................... FAX ................... 510-770-9910
Trident ................... BBS ................... 415-691-1016
Trident ................... Tech Support .......... 415-691-9211
Tripplite ................. T/S ................... 312-329-1601
*Tseng Labs ................ General................ 215-968-0502
*Tseng Labs ................ Fax ................... 215-860-7713
(U)
Ultrastor ................. BBS ................... 510-623-9091
Ultrastor ................. General ............... 714-581-4100
Ultrastor ................. Tech Support .......... 510-623-8955
Unicore ................... General ............... 800-800-2467
Unicore ................... General ............... 508-686-6468
USNO Time of Day .......... BBS ................... 202-653-0351
U.S.Robotics .............. T/S ................... 800-342-5877
U.S.Robotics .............. BBS ................... 708-982-5092
UUNET ..................... ................... 800-488-6386
(V)
VESA ...................... General ............... 408-435-0333
VESA ...................... FAX ................... 408-435-8225
Video Seven ............... T/S ................... 800-248-1850
(W)
Walnut Creek (CDROM) ...... General ............... 800-786-9907
Walnut Creek (CDROM) ...... General ............... 510-947-5996
Walnut Creek (CDROM) ...... FAX ................... 510-947-1644
Wangtek ................... VOICE ................. 805-583-5255
Wangtek ................... FAX ................... 805-582-8249
Weitek Corp. .............. General ............... 408-738-8400
Weitek Corp. .............. Fax ................... 408-738-1185
Weltec .................... T/S ................... 714-669-1955
Western Digital ........... BBS ................... 714-753-1234 2400b
Western Digital ........... BBS ................... 714-753-1068 9600b
Western Digital ........... France ................ 331-69-85-3914
Western Digital ........... Germany ............... 49-89-922006-60
Western Digital ........... Tech Support .......... 800-832-4778
Western Digital ........... Tech Support .......... 714-932-4900
Western Digital ........... UK .................... 44-372-360387
WordPerfect Corp........... BBS ................... 801-225-4414
WordPerfect Corp........... Tech Support .......... 800-541-5096
Wyse Technology ........... BBS ................... 408-922-4400
Wyse Technology ........... Tech Support .......... 408-435-2770
(X)
Xerox Computer Serv........ General ............... 213-306-4000
(Z)
Zenith .................... T/S ................... 708-808-4300
Zeos International ........ Sales ................. 800-423-5891
Zeos International ........ Upgrade Sales ......... 800-874-2943
Zeos International ........ Customer Service ...... 800-848-9022
Zeos International ........ Tech Support .......... 800-228-5390
Zeos International ........ T/S Fax ............... 612-633-4607
ZEOS Online Graphics BBS... BBS ................... 612-633-0815
Zyxel Communications ...... Service Center ........ 714-693-0804
Zyxel Communications ...... BBS ................... 714-693-0762
S) 10.0 Acknowledgments:
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to the faq:
Carsten Grammes (cagr@rz.uni-sb.de), Mike Long (mike.long@analog.com),
Cameron L. Spitzer (cls@truffula.sj.ca.us), John M. Grohol
(grohol@alpha.acast.nova.edu), Jeff Abramson
(jabram@ichips.intel.com), Ronald Geens (rgeens@wins.uia.ac.be), Paul
Leslie Strople (strople@ug.cs.dal.ca), David Reeve Sward
(sward+@1.EDU), zeos@zeos.com, Steve Rusk (zz96sr@sdacs.ucsd.edu),
Arnoud Martens (arnoud@ijssel.hacktick.nl)
and the many others who helped bring the FAQ to where it is today.
===============
Ralph Valentino (ralf@chpc.org) (ralf@wpi.wpi.edu)
Hardware Engineer, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Center for High Performance Computing, Marlborough MA