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From: ed@maxed.amg.com (Ed Whittemore)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: Future Domain/Adaptec controller question.
Keywords: 16-bit controllers, 4-floppy systems.
Message-ID: <1990Sep08.180006.4132@maxed.amg.com>
Date: 8 Sep 90 18:00:06 GMT
References: <6704@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Organization: American Micro Group, Inc., Ft. Lee, NJ
Lines: 52

In article <6704@darkstar.ucsc.edu> ericz@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Eric Zamost) writes:
>
>I recently purchased an AT-bus SCSI controller which was sold as
>a Future Domain.  It can address seven SCSI devices (6 disks and
>a tape back up - why the distinction?) and (supposedly) four
>floppies.  It develops that this board is not made by Future
>Domain, but only uses their chipset.  Also, closer inspection
>reveals that it is not really a 16-bit board - the AT-unique
>portion of the connector only has 7 "fingers" - 2 are ground and
>5 are interupt-select.  To be "truly" a 16 bit board (in my mind,
>at least) you have to send data 16 bits at a time.
>
>
>My questions:
>Is the Adaptec 1542B truly a 16 bit board (and how do other
>people define "truly" in this context)?

YES

>
>How are the Adaptec 1542A and 1542B different, and what is the 16xx?
>

They are functionally the same, the B card is the later rev and smaller.
The 16xx is a microchannel card.

>Can the Adaptec 1542x support 4 floppies?

NO

>
>Is it neccessary to buy special drivers for the Adaptec to
>support unusual devices (tape backups, Bernoulli cartridge
>systems, four floppies, etc.)?

For DOS the drivers should come with the SCSI devices you buy. For
Unix, tape support is built in. 

>
>Are there any other controllers I should be thinking about?  (I
>want the best performance I can get in the $200-300 price range,
>integrated floppy support, and future versatility (Bernoulli?))

Of the three major SCSI 16 bit cards available the Future domain
is relatively low performance, the Western Digital FASST card
requires a driver just to recognize DOS drives, but is
roughly equivalent in performance to, the Adaptec 154x cards which do
not.

-- 
Ed Whittemore   uunet!maxed!ed   ed@maxed.amg.com
American Micro Group, Inc.   201-944-3293