Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!rutgers!ucsd!pacbell.com!mips!prls!philabs!ppgbms!paul From: paul@ppgbms (Paul Evan Matz) Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi Subject: Re: SCSI monitors Summary: Wanted to add to Pacific Electro Data Recommendation Keywords: SCSI Analyzer Emulator Message-ID: <34820@ppgbms.UUCP> Date: 13 Jul 90 13:29:11 GMT References: <5846@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> <11038@alice.UUCP> <338@travis.csd.harris.com> Reply-To: paul@ppgbms.UUCP (Paul Evan Matz) Organization: PPG Biomedical Sys., Pleasantville, NY. Lines: 66 In article <338@travis.csd.harris.com> garyb@SSD.CSD.HARRIS.COM (Gary Barton) writes: >In article <11038@alice.UUCP> andrew@alice.UUCP (Andrew Hume) writes: >> >>this group may have covered this before but can anyone point me towards >>a sophisticated SCSI monitor? ... > >We have a couple of Pacific Electro Data PED4000 series of PC >expansion cards and software. I sometimes wonder how we got by before >we had these things.... > >...Anyway, here's their address and phone for those interested: > > Pacific Electro Data, Inc. > 14 Hughes, Suite B205 > Irvine, CA 92718 > (714) 770-3244 > I just wanted to second this recommendation and add a little. We've been using their 1st generation hardware and software for almost 2 years without any reliability problems. Initially, when we uncovered a few problems with their emulator software, their tech support was instantaneous; All information exchange was done via fax, and software fixes were sent overnight express (not to imply that you'll need anything fixed at this point). They have both state and phase analysis modes, as well as both target and initiator emulation. Although we've never done it, target/initiator emulation and one analysis mode may run simultaneously. The emulation is done by writing in a C like programming language that is run by an interpreter; The interpreter is the guy who controls the SCSI hardware during emulation. The analysis hardware is also programable, although the language is quite cryptic, due to the fact that it is run by a little bit-slice processor who executes one instruction every 100 nanoseconds (PED-4001 hardware). You get 32 words worth of program, which turns out to be enough for most applications. The emulation on a PC/XT class machine is somewhat slow. I don't know what kind of inprovements can be attained by going to a faster PC, or how much faster their next generation of hardware is. The documentation is a bit obtuse; You can tell it was written by the guy who designed the system. Once one wades thru it, though, the result is being able to simulate just about anything you want, and being able to look at it in detail. The capture buffer on the 4001 is 2K words; If you set up your analysis to ignore most of the data phase, you can grab 20-30 full transactions which are all timestamped relative to each other. Triggering the capture is configurable and can be based on things like which intiator is talking to which target, what the command being sent is, etc.. (This is when running their state analysis mode of caputure). I've never run their phase analysis, so I can't comment on it's capacity. Just occured to me that perhaps those of us who use this machine could swap and share some of the analysis/emulation programs we have written. Anyone out there interested? In summary, if you're getting into SCSI development, something like this can save your butt. By the way, I have no ax to grind; Just another very satisfied customer! ___________________________________________________________________ |Regards, PPG Biomedical Systems | |Paul Matz One Campus Drive | |914-741-4685 Pleasantville, NY. 10570 | |{..}!uunet!philabs!ppgbms!paul ppgbms!paul@philabs.philips.com | |___________________________________________________________________| path ppgbms!moe!paul@philabs.philips.com