Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!sumax!polari!rwing!nanook From: nanook@rwing.UUCP (Robert Dinse) Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy Subject: Re: 16B Info/Tips/Resources (semi-long) Summary: 16B Confusion Keywords: 16B, Xenix, Tandy Message-ID: <154@rwing.UUCP> Date: 13 Sep 90 21:22:28 GMT References: <1990Sep12.073838.8635@coyote.uucp> Organization: Totally Unorganized Lines: 92 In article <1990Sep12.073838.8635@coyote.uucp>, jmh@coyote.uucp (John Hughes) writes: John: Hence the 16B, with its direct ancestry to the Model II, is John: not a fancy Model I or Model III, and should not be mistaken for John: such. I don't think the folks that commented that the interface card inside the model II/12/16/16B/6000 made it compatable with the external expansion connectors on the mod III/4 were confusing the two machines. Just pointing out that hard drives and other periphery that used that connector on the model III/4 could also be used on the 2/12/16/16B/6000 family with that card and appropriate software. John: To reasonably run a 16B with the Xenix OS, one needs at least a John: 12Mbyte hard drive, and that will be *tight*. I know someone running with a single 8 megabyte drive. I've got one machine that has one 70 meg and one 40 meg and that is tight. I've got another that has two 8 megs, and for what it's being used for it is adequate. John: There are two types of external hard drive controllers, both of John: which require an interface card in the 16B. This interface is not John: simply an extension of the Model I expansion bus. It is SCSI, or John: something very close to it. At the hard drive end, one will find John: either one of two cards: the 8x300 (old) or a Western Digital John: WD1000-TB1 (new). The difference is easy to spot, the 8x300 is big, John: and takes up most of the PCB shelf space in the external drive John: enclosure. The WD1000 is about half that size. I'm not 100% confident of this, but it was my understanding there were three external disk controllers, two based on the 8x300, one for 8 inch drives, another for 5-1/4 inch drives, and then a >WD1010< based controller for 5-1/4 inch drives. The interface card in the computer makes it look like a model III/4 expansion interface connector. The only thing the SCSI interface card was used for, to the best of my knowledge, was the Bournelli Box (and Bob Snapp has connected large SCSI drives to it I've been told). John: The maximum size per disk drive is 8 heads and 1024 cylinders. Only if you haven't changed out the WD1010 for a WD2010 and patched diskutil to allow 2048 cylinders. Concerning media defects, I have found the supplied maps are often for 256 byte sectors or 1024 blocks and so are not accurate anyway. What I've done is to format, and it will pick up some errors, then run the continuous disk read diagnostic for about a week in the mode where it does not stop on an error. At the end of the week I add the bad cylinders to the error table by formatting again. I find this picks up sectors that will immediately test good but have rentitivity problems. John: Many of the older 16B systems (if not all) used single-sided John: floppies. I've seen a model 16 (not 16B) equipped with single sided drives but I've yet to see a 16B equipped with anything but double sided thinlines. I bought a model 16B new in 1985 (what a sucker eh?), it was equipped with double sided drives. I've yet to get any software distributed on double sided floppies, including 3.02.00 kernal and development system which you say you've installed. John: 16B I/O Ports John: The stock 16B comes with two serial and one parallel port. The John: serial ports may be configured to operate at up to 9600 baud. What speeds are EXTA and EXTB? John: Bob Snapp is well known to 16B/6000 machine owners. He offers a John: variety of services and hardware. For big bucks! I knew Snapp has SCSI hard drives working on these machines so I called him. He quoted me some outrageous price for 200+ meg drives, I asked if I could just buy the software, sure for $1600, and it wouldn't work with 3.02.00 I was told. I still don't have a SCSI drive on my machine, anyone with information on how to do this without becoming an amputee, I'd appreciate it. John: There are three public access/BBS systems that I'm aware of that John: either run on 16B/6000 machines or have software available for John: them. These are: John: eskimo 206 365 5458 (16B system) I run Eskimo North, it's been on a 6000 for a couple of years now, running with 2 megabytes of RAM, 206-365-5458 is the last line in the hunt group, best to use (206) 367-3837, or (206) For-Ever. 3/12/2400 baud, 24 hours. John: mundane 608 256 3133 (6000 system) John: sir-alan 814 337 3159 (used to be a 16B) The sysop of Mundane is Monty Schmidt, he knows how to modify the MMU's for more than 1-meg, might be able to save you a few bucks over Tandy.